Unconditional
by Unliteration
Summary: Figuring out love can be a hard thing. Sometimes the heart lies. Sometimes the mind does. To find the right person, you've got to see through it all. Buttercup x Bubbles. Continued in Unconventional.
1. Unconditional

**Unconditional**

Inspired by DragonShadow's Conditions of Love

Figuring out love can be a hard thing. Sometimes the heart lies. Sometimes the mind does. To find the right person, you've got to see through it all.

**Forward:**

I'm not entirely sure why I felt inspired to write this. However, Conditions of Love (by DragonShadow) was certainly where it started.

Regarding the relationship of this fic and CoL, DragonShadow is in no way affiliated with this fic, and each fic is completely separate from the other. DragonShadow was not involved in my writings, and I borrowed from his without his knowledge or consent. I did, however, ask his consent before actually sharing this with anyone.

Unconditional is part homage and part extension. CoL took a situation I'd imagine only third-rate lemons would consider and made it actually believable in its own way, with a little imagination. I could imagine that scenario actually playing out in the right circumstances. Unconditional is an attempt to examine one possible set of such circumstances.

I don't consider Unconditional a replacement of CoL; they each fill different roles. CoL is a short story, essentially skipping to the climax and doing so well. Unconditional, as you have noticed, is closer to a novel than a short story. It is not necessary to read either to appreciate the other.

This is a long fic, but the topic is rather delicate and hardly simple. On that note, I'm in no way promoting relationships like these. Still, I don't think it is unfathomable. The world is very large, and rest assured that when it comes to people nearly anything imaginable has actually happened at some point. All the same, if you're not interested in reading this, fine. If you insist it is impossible, you're welcome to that. I did not write this with the expectation everyone would enjoy it, and if you don't, I'm sorry to have wasted your time.

I will admit that this fic skirts around a lot of the normal, day-to-day activities of the girls, such as crime fighting, patrols, and such. Such things should be assumed to take place with their normal regularity (whatever that is) and are referenced from time to time, but going into any great detail would detract from the primary story (and make this monster even longer).

The main focus is on Buttercup, with the occasional chapter focusing on someone else for sake of perspective. The sequel, Unconventional, invests time with a mix of characters, though Blossom and Professor Utonium make up for the spotlight lost here.

DragonShadow's Conditions of Love was supposed to be a one-shot story. At one point I wasn't certain about Unconditional, but when I came back to re-read and make corrections, I still felt compelled to explore the aftermath, which I believed could be at least as interesting. Unconventional is the result, and if you find you enjoy Unconditional I recommend you continue the tale there.

**Chapter 1**

Night had fallen. The Utonium residence was bathed in the silvery light of the moon, eerily bright on this cloudless summer night. The rose bushes in front were hazy and ethereal. In the backyard sat a swing set, disused and forgotten, and in that bewitching light even looking to be the memory it was.

Childhood had passed. As the years moved by the Utonium girls had gradually put aside childish concerns as ever-greater responsibility had been set upon their shoulders. Other matters filled their minds as they prepared to enter their senior year of high school. In less than a month they would celebrate their eighteenth birthday, the end of their thirteenth year of life. Tomorrow, however, would begin their last year of high school. One of them, at least, dreaded tomorrow.

Buttercup rolled onto her side and stared at her alarm clock. The harsh red digits glared back at her, informing her in an almost accusatory fashion that it was 2:13.

The numbers grew blurry briefly before Buttercup brushed her eyes to clear the forming tears.

She rolled onto her back again and stared at the ceiling. She needed to sleep. She desperately needed to sleep, and not just for sake of school or to be rested. She wanted her mind to be at ease again.

Buttercup tried and repeatedly failed to clear her mind. Every time it strayed, she silently reprimanded herself. Eventually another tear rolled down, tickling her as it rolled to her temple.

She turned her head to check the time again. Now 2:47, she was no closer to precious emptiness.

The realization just frustrated her more, and the tears flowed in force until she checked them. She hated tears. She hated to cry. It always embarrassed her; made her feel weak. It was little consolation that these tears came in the privacy of her bedroom, but they would have shamed her to no end if someone else had seen them.

Almost anyone else, she admitted. This summer had been very special for her. She found someone who she could share her feelings with and cry in front of without feeling that shame. Someone who understood and loved her unconditionally. There was someone Buttercup could trust and love without ever worrying about whether that love was returned.

Still Buttercup was not convinced that her current dilemma could be shared so freely and be so well received. Part of her hoped and wished and knew it would be, but she was still so afraid, even if at least part of it could be understood. Buttercup wasn't used to being unable to act, and the frustration of doing nothing when she felt like she should do something was overwhelming.

After a quick sniffle to clear her nose, Buttercup swung her legs off the side and sat up. She looked around her room, taking in the moon-bathed sights. Her desk--cluttered with nail polish and comic books, covered by a handful of unwashed sports bras. Bubbles often teased her for her slovenliness. Among those comics were some Japanese manga she'd recently acquired. Bubbles had read some with one of her friends last year and had recommended the series to Buttercup. They were fairly brutal and depressing. With her joyful, loving nature it was hard to imagine that she had a side that could enjoy these.

Buttercup shook her head and continued to look around the room. On her door, a stuffed monkey hung from a coat hook. A gift from Bubbles.

Then to her closet, one of its mirrored sliding doors open. She spotted the dark green formal dress she'd worn only once, when she and her sisters attended a diplomatic function the summer before last. It had been, as Buttercup knew it would be, an exceptionally boring and drawn out event. In fact, her best memories of it were her and Bubbles surreptitiously flinging olives at each other until Blossom scolded them.

Bubbles, seemingly omnilingual, spoke with the pretty daughter of one of the Chinese dignitaries. Buttercup felt left out and asked Bubbles what they were talking and laughing about. Bubbles claimed she was trying to hook Buttercup up with the young Chinese woman.

_Was that the seed?_ Buttercup wondered.

Sure, Bubbles had been teasing. She would later tell Buttercup so, but at first Bubbles pretended to act as a translator for the hypothetical couple. Buttercup didn't know what Bubbles had told the petite foreigner, but Bubbles certainly had fun with her sister's shocked and frightened denials. Bubbles almost burst out laughing while Buttercup tried desperately to tell the girl that she wasn't interested and drew angry looks from nearby people at the table.

After the meal ended and the people at the table scattered, Bubbles took Buttercup aside and apologized. "But--and please don't take this the wrong way--but... Well, I'm not saying I think you're a lesbian or anything, but I just can't picture you being with a guy and being happy. You're such a take charge type, but I know you'd never put up with a pushover." She winked and smiled. "Of course, I don't think you'd look good with another brunette at your side, either."

Then Bubbles left away to mingle with the people of the other nations. She'd turned her speech into something playful and unimportant, and Buttercup just shook her head and laughed before spending the rest of the evening alone on the balcony, praying some stupid villain or another would crash the party and give her something to do.

Back in her room again, Buttercup shook her head more violently, growling quietly as she did so. She shot a glare at her clock, daring it to tell her it was any later. It was now five past three.

She hung her head and took in a few deep breaths. Eventually she stood up. When she did so, she'd been determined to act. Now that she was standing, it seemed a bad idea again.

Instead she strolled uneasily to the wall beside her desk. Using the powers she'd been born/created with, she peered through that wall into the bedroom adjacent. When they were much younger, she and her sisters shared that room. Now Buttercup had what was the guest bedroom. Their father had sacrificed his study downstairs to give Blossom a room. Bubbles was perfectly content to stay put.

Buttercup looked at her sister, now. Her bed was positioned opposite the windows, since she loved being awoken by the sun shining in from their three ovular windows. Now, the moonlight bathed her. She was almost angelic; smiling slightly, totally at peace, and almost glowing in the silvery light.

Buttercup put her hand on her wall, though she saw straight through it as well. Her fingertips drifted down, and when she pulled her hand away and made a fist, she was careful not to damage the wall. Buttercup was too strong to let her feelings get away with her. Even since childhood. The world around her was too fragile.

She was so close. Buttercup imagined she could almost reach out and touch her. All she had to do was walk a few steps down the hallway...

She didn't, though. She couldn't. It just wasn't right. It felt like it couldn't be any more right, more perfect, but she knew it was all wrong. In these last few months Buttercup realized what she'd had all along. Someone she could love without all her heart. Someone who wasn't so fragile.

Buttercup stopped peering through the wall. She turned from it in disgust, feeling physically sick. She turned around, dropped to her knees, and finally began sobbing.

_What's wrong with me? How can I be so...disgusting? I love my own damned sister. How could I ever let _that_ happen?_

Yet she knew. If anything, she wondered more how it hadn't happened sooner.

This summer had been great, but school beckoned. Bubbles would go back to her friends, her classes, and Buttercup was so afraid that her sister would drift away from her again.

She'd dreaded this for days. But even during what was, in her mind, the final hour, she couldn't bring herself to come forward. She just knew it would ruin everything. Bubbles would see her as the perverted freak of nature she was, and they could never be comfortable together again. As much as she hoped, as much as she wished, there was no way Bubbles would love her back.

Eventually Buttercup returned to bed. Only sheer weariness had the power to claim her now. When it finally did, the clock, stoic and uncaring, beamed 5:11 into the still darkness.


	2. In the Bedroom

**In the Bedroom**

"Wake up! Buttercup, wake up!"

Buttercup lazily batted away than hand that was roughly shaking her, grumbling a little. Then she shot straight up.

Her alarm was blaring. Judging by the time, it had been for the last ten minutes. Buttercup quickly silenced it and looked up.

Bubbles was standing beside her bed, already wearing her favorite blue summer dress and backpack. Bubbles had to get up earlier than Buttercup to preen and put on makeup. Sure, Buttercup used nail polish now and again, but in the mornings she was happy to throw on some clothes, brush her hair, and leave. Sadly, never devoting time to non-essentials meant it was hard to make up for running late.

Bubbles put a hand on her hip and gave Buttercup a stern look. The gesture reminded her of Blossom. The girls certainly could take on the best (or worst) of each other when it suited them.

"You're gonna be late for school," Bubbles said matter-of-factly.

Buttercup, not normally a morning person in any case and in dire straights with bare hours of sleep under her belt, reflexively snapped back at her sister. "You could've woke me up!"

Bubbles replaced the stern facade with a wry smile. "I did, silly. And you're welcome."

"Yeah, well you..." Buttercup caught herself. She didn't want to be mean to her sister. It was her own fault she'd stayed up so late. Bubbles didn't have to suffer for Buttercup's problems. Shaking her head and rubbing her eyes, she lamely added, "Thanks."

"No problem," Bubbles said.

Buttercup had about jumped out of bed, but felt suddenly self-conscious. "Could you maybe..." She caught herself again. She and her sisters had seen each other in their underwear plenty of times in their lives. Maybe if she got embarrassed and asked Bubbles to leave it would be suspicious. Instead she shook her head again and added, "Nevermind." She climbed uncertainly out of bed, still feeling a little awkward.

If anything, her tone and actions made things worse. "Umm, Buttercup?" Bubbles asked, concerned. "Is there something on your mind?"

Buttercup was unsure of herself when she replied, "No, uh... No. I'm just tired." She had avoided looking at her sister, which meant avoiding her reflection in the mirrored closet doors as well.

Bubbles giggled. "Wearing yesterday's underwear again, are we?"

"Uh...yeah," Buttercup answered. It was already bad enough without fixing that. She managed a glance at Bubbles in the mirror. She was picking up Buttercup's dirty sports bras from her desk, tossing them into the pile of other dirty clothes in the corner.

"I thought I told you to clean this up a week ago!" Bubbles scolded playfully.

"I, uh...did. Those are new," Buttercup replied evenly. She pulled out a pair of jeans and a plain green t-shirt, both clean but well-worn.

Bubbles clucked, "Oh, Buttercup, you'll never learn, will you?"

She didn't respond. After she zipped up her pants she caught Bubbles in the mirror again. She was tapping her foot impatiently. "At this rate you'll never make it in time. I'd think you'd be used to this sleeping in thing by now."

"Sorry," Buttercup said, trying to fake a smile. She tensed when Bubbles's reflection looked concerned and walked towards her. She jumped when she felt her sister's hand on her shoulder.

"Buttercup, are you sure everything's all right? You've been acting a little off this last week. You know you can tell me anything, right?"

With the closet door open, Buttercup couldn't see Bubbles's reflection while she stood behind her like that. She could still imagine the look on her face well enough. Without turning around, she slipped on her shirt as she replied.

"It's nothing, Bubbles. Don't worry about me. It's just... Well, this is our last year of school. I'm just kind of wondering what happens next, you know."

Bubbles started giggling, but it quickly turned into an affectionate sigh. "That's not too hard, Buttercup. Dad won't be happy unless the three of us are straight off to college. Besides, I don't let that stuff bother me. I know things'll work out for the best in the end."

Buttercup chuckled and smiled genuinely this time. It was hard to get her sister down. She turned to tell her that, and found herself in an unexpected hug. Before she recovered, Bubbles kissed her on the cheek and stepped back. "Don't worry about it. You'll see. I'd better get going now, though. I'll see you at school!"

With a smile and a wave, she was gone, closing the door behind her.

Buttercup leaned to the side and looked into the mirror, gently touching her cheek. Bubbles was so soft, so gentle. When she had to be, though, she was every bit as strong as Blossom or even Buttercup herself.

Seeing her reflection, Buttercup scowled at herself and rubbed her cheek furiously. She looked tired, certainly, but it was her expression that had disgusted her.

_It's just a silly, stupid, sick dream,_ she thought as she rushed around to grab socks and shoes. _You're obsessed. She's your sister. You love her. That's perfectly normal. Just forget about everything else and move on. It'll never happen, and you're a sucker if you think it could. Just enjoy what you have and get over it. Maybe find a decent guy somewhere and just forget about everything._

Running a brush through her hair a few times, she bolted outside her room, hopped over the second floor railing, flew into the living room, and went out the front door. Only then did she streak off towards school. As the girls had grown they'd tried to keep the super-speed to a minimum indoors, since their larger bodies tended to push more air and make bigger messes. A couple of times over the years they'd blown out windows.

These days, it seemed, they were always holding back.


	3. Catching Up

**Catching Up**

Bubbles touched down gently on the school's front walkway as the first bell blared. She jogged to her first classroom, but she wasn't too concerned about being late. Other students in the hallways were just now making their way to class, and they weren't even rushing like she was.

What worried her more was Buttercup. She'd really opened up these last months, and Bubbles was glad her sister had warmed up to someone. She wasn't sure she bought the "worried about our future" story this morning, though. Buttercup wasn't usually any more concerned about the future than Bubbles.

Buttercup had, however, seemed distracted. She'd even apologized for holding up Bubbles this morning. A quick, sincere apology from Buttercup was a rare event.

Bubbles thought that maybe there was something else Buttercup wanted to say. She'd been doing a lot of topic jumping lately, and she sometimes started to say one thing and then change her mind. Bubbles wondered if, after everything else they'd shared, Buttercup was on the verge of saying that she was too ashamed to tell anyone else. Even Blossom and Professor had noticed Buttercup seemed a little distracted, but nothing like Bubbles had noticed.

She made a mental note to remind Buttercup that she was always there for her if she needed someone to listen. Maybe Blossom would lecture her if she'd done something wrong, but Bubbles certainly wouldn't.

When Bubbles reached the classroom she briefly bit her lower lip in embarrassment and smiled shyly at the teacher before taking a window-side desk next to Mike.

"Hi," she mouthed silently at him. Mike Believe, her longtime friend and once-upon-a-time boyfriend responded in kind. She hadn't seen much of her friends this summer, but since that time had been spent with her sister she considered it an acceptable trade off. She just hoped going back to school wouldn't split them up again.

Mike was, like Buttercup, a bit of a loner and an outsider. Bubbles knew a lot of people had been surprised when she and Mike had started going out, even though they had already been and now remained good friends. Bubbles learned years ago that the other smiling, pretty, "normal" people were usually insincere. Even when they weren't, they didn't need Bubbles like her friends did. "You don't need more sunshine in the desert," as Bubbles had written in a poem for English last year. She'd gotten a B.

Mike often wore the same clothes for days and showered as infrequently. His long, greasy hair, dyed black, often fell over his face, a flimsy shield against the world around him. He was a decent student, though. While he had no problems with speaking up in class, sometimes _what_ he chose to say created problems for him. It was easy to mistake him for a problem child, but his few close friends all knew better.

When class ended, Mike hopped his desk into Bubbles's aisle. They hugged briefly and started walking out. Bubbles asked Mike how his summer had been.

"Same old, same old. Worse without you around. Wrote more crappy poems I ended up trashing. I got more into my art, though. I actually did a painting based on one of my sketches. You should come over today and check it out."

"That sounds great! I'll catch you by your car after school."

"Cool. How was your summer? Other than the stuff on the news, of course."

Bubbles giggled. There had been a few incidents of super-villainy this summer, but it was quiet overall. There were no monster attacks which, as it turns out, was related to another villain causing mischief at Monster Isle. Of course, the girls had put a stop to that, too.

"Well, it was pretty quiet. Relaxing. I spent a lot of time with my family. Especially Buttercup."

"Oh, really? Doing what?"

"Not much. Talking mostly. You know, sister stuff."

"Ah, say no more."

They stopped by Mike's locker. Bubbles frowned ever so briefly at the carton of cigarettes she saw in there, but she'd given up on breaking Mike of the habit. At least he was eighteen now, as he had been for the last five months.

"I know better than to ask, but I will anyway," Mike said.

"Of course," Bubbles responded.

"I think I know the answer, but how big a crock was that stuff Mitch was spreading around last year?"

Bubbles lost her smile immediately. She was bright and cheery most of the time, but when she choose to dislike someone her attitude could be just as bad as Buttercup's. In some ways, the contrast mast it worse. "Not a word of truth," she replied. "And, yes, frankly, you should know better."

Mike shrugged. "Like I said, I figured as much. I did wonder, though. Your sister doesn't seem the type to let lies like that slide."

Bubbles smiled again, though wryly. "You're probably right, but she's seventeen, now. They might try her as an adult." She elbowed Mike playfully. As they continued down the hall that turned into a mock shoving match as they randomly shouldered into each other.

"So, if you missed me this summer why didn't you call, huh?" Bubbles asked in mock interrogation, eyes widened for comedic effect.

"You know I don't call people. Why didn't you call me?"

"'Cause I was having fun without you."

"Ah, so, in other words, you have no need of me?"

"Aw, Mike, don't say that. You know we were straight off to Africa to beat Mojo to some magical artifact. Then I just kind of hung around, you know?"

"Yeah, yeah. World first, Mike second. I see how it is."

"Actually, it's world first, family second, Mike third, but whatever helps you sleep at night." Bubbles winked and whirled around to head to her next class, skirt billowing.

Mike's breath caught as he watched her skitter away. Bubbles had broken off their relationship. It was gentle enough, and the fact they remained best friends showed that. For Mike, however, who had loved Bubbles long before he asked her out and loved her even now, there really was no "gentle."

He was resigned to it, though. Bubbles was Bubbles, as free spirited and friendly as anyone. Personally, so long as she remained happy, he could live with it.

Mike sauntered off to his next class, ignoring the looks people always shot his way. He was happy enough, and they weren't going to take that from him.


	4. The First Lunch

**The First Lunch**

When Buttercup entered her history classroom, she almost turned right around and left. Mitch Mitchelson was sitting in the back of the room.

Towards the end of the previous school year they'd developed some bad blood, to say the least. They'd been pretty decent friends to that point. They and a small circle of other people.

Then Mitch called and asked Buttercup on a date. Though she'd never had or looked for a boyfriend, she'd said "yes." A little uncertainly and surprised, certainly, but she'd agreed. Mitch had never shown an interest in her before, but one never knew. She wasn't sure if she believed all the things she heard about him, friend or no. But even if it was true he'd never treat _her_ like that, right?

Sadly, that was not the case. He was more obnoxious than ever, and put a lot of pressure on Buttercup to... Well, to do the things Mitch later claimed they'd been doing for years. Before Buttercup supposedly had a change of heart and wanted Mitch all to herself. Mitch claimed Buttercup had never been anything more than a "fun lay" to him, despite her alleged deep-seated feelings.

Buttercup generally wasn't involved in the personal lives of her friends, aside from offhand comments and afterthought tidbits they shared with her. One of Mitch's girlfriends had hung out with them all for a while, but when they broke up she grew disgusted with all of them and left. When Mitch had called her a stuck-up bitch and a slut, Buttercup didn't pay much attention. The girl hadn't hung around them long enough for anyone else to get to know her, and Buttercup didn't get along with other girls in general.

After her experience, though, she understood that girl a whole lot better. She felt bad for her, but worse for herself. She'd lost her only friends over the whole thing, and after lies like that wasn't likely to make many more. Her sisters knew they were all lies, even to the point they never really questioned Buttercup about it. But truth had a way of dying down in a place like this when it was less interesting than the alternatives.

She was tempted to set the notebook on his desk on fire with heat vision right now. When she had confronted Mitch over his lies last year, she hadn't actually hurt him, but she had offered the friendly advice, "Mitch, when you do stuff that would make a girl shoot lasers out her eyes at you, you'd better make damned sure she can't actually shoot lasers out of her eyes at you."

She wanted to make that threat a reality, but knew better. It wouldn't do any good and would just get her in trouble. Worse, if people heard that she came back to school sleep-deprived and then straight off set Mitch's stuff on fire, they'd think she was still "heartbroken" over him.

She took a seat at the front of class for a change, once again bound to inaction.

* * *

History ended none-too-soon, and then Buttercup was free for lunch. Free to do what, she didn't know. Last semester, after Mitch, her lunch habits changed. Many times she skipped, other times she flew home to grab a quick meal. Every time, she'd spent most of the lunch period on the school's roof, solitary and brooding.

Sometimes she looked down at the other kids who spent lunch outside. Bubbles was usually one of these, flying out to get fast food for her friends and herself.

Sometimes they spotted each other. Bubbles waved when she did so, and after that first day was always waving Buttercup down to join them. She never did. But now...

Having skipped breakfast, Buttercup was starving but didn't look for anything. Instead she flew to the roof and sat, waiting. Buttercup must have missed Bubbes's departure, but she saw a streak of blue with her return. Buttercup smiled. She didn't bother waiting for an invitation; with her sister, she knew, she didn't need one.

It was just Bubbles and Mike Believe today, the latter wearing his shades. Buttercup waved at him and said, "Hi," as she gently touched down behind Bubbles.

"Hey, Buttercup," Mike greeted. Mike hardly spent time with Bubbles's other sisters, but they were all on good terms. Which is to say Buttercup didn't care and Blossom was too polite to say anything to his face.

Bubbles turned around, beaming as always. "Oh, hey! Finally going to join us?"

Buttercup shrugged. "Sure."

"I hear you and your sister really bonded this summer," Mike said as the three sat on a stone bench under a broad-topped tree, Bubbles in the middle.

"Uh, what? Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was... Yeah, really fun," Buttercup said, hastening to add, "Like when we were kids."

"So how are your classes?" Bubbles asked conversationally.

"Phfft. I almost slept through most of 'em. Freaking Mitch Mitchelson's in my history class."

With casual feel of a polite cough Mike dropped a suitable unpleasant adjective for Mitch before taking a bite of his burger.

"Oh, Buttercup, you probably didn't get any breakfast, huh?" Bubbles asked.

Buttercup shook her head.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't think to get anything for you."

"Here," Mike said, slapping his once-bitten burger in Buttercup's hand.

"Ew, no," she replied, handing it back. Mike shrugged and took it, and another bite of it. Mouth full, he offered, "Take my fries."

Bubbles handed Buttercup the to-go bag with the box of fries still in it.

"Thanks," Buttercup said.

"Hey, perfect," Blossom said, startling them. Bubbles and Buttercup turned back to see their redheaded sister coming from around the tree. Mike pointedly ignored her. Again, he wasn't really on bad terms with her, but this was probably family business.

Blossom walked in front of them before continuing. "Bubbles, Buttercup, I just got a tip from my astronomy teacher. He's waiting for confirmation from some government-funded labs, but there's a small body on a possible collision course with Earth. Nothing catastrophic, but we should get some practice in just in case we have to handle it in near-space conditions. I think Friday afternoon should be good."

Her sisters gave their consent. "Great. I'll help Professor give our suits an inspection after school. I'm going to grab some lunch now, though. I'll see you around!"

Blossom waved and left. Just like that.

Buttercup realized that things had been like that between all three of them for the last few years. They had different interests, liked different people, and since middle school those differences had gradually separated them. They still got along and, once in a while, even had fun together. They worked together, trained together, usually ate dinner together, and sometimes watched T.V. together, but they were far from the inseparable trio of their yesteryears.

Bubbles and Mike didn't seem to give it another thought, though, going right back to business as usual after Blossom's brief interjection.

"I'm heading to Mike's after school," Bubbles said.

"A feeble effort to make up for not seeing me all summer," Mike interjected.

"That's cool," Buttercup said. She hid her dejection well. Her life with her sister was what it was, after all. No sense worrying about that any more.

"You're welcome to join us. Isn't she, Mike?"

Mike hid his disappointment well, too. "Sure. Whatever."

"I'll think about it, I guess. Thanks," Buttercup said.


	5. The Painting

**The Painting**

After the final bell, Buttercup wandered out front. She had no real plans for today, and she decided that since she'd been invited to Mike's she would go. She had to straighten her life out some time, and this late into the high school game her best shot was probably getting in at ground level through Mike, Bubbles, and their circle of acquaintances.

She spotted the two leaning against Mike's open-top convertible. Mike spotted her and threw his head back in apparent disappointment, though he smiled when he shook his head. Buttercup focused her inhuman hearing their way and heard him mutter, "Another five bucks I owe you." He slid across his hood and hopped into the driver's seat. Bubbles simply waved.

"Hey, guys," Buttercup greeted. Mike lit a cigarette.

"Hi, Buttercup. Coming with us?" Bubbles asked as Mike started the car.

"Sure. I've got nothing better to do."

"Well," Bubbles said, opening the passenger side door. "Hop in?"

"Should I take the back seat?"

She asked like she'd be a bother, but the old car was wide, and even the front seat was a bench seat; even the shifter was part of the steering column. It could comfortably seat three.

"Oh, I see. Too shy to sit by Mike, are we?" Bubbles teased. She took the middle spot and patted the seat next to her.

Rather than retorting, Buttercup shook her head in bemusemen and took the offered spot.

She did think of something to say soon after they started moving, though. "Mike didn't seem too happy to see me either, you know."

"I bet Bubbles you wouldn't show up," Mike said.

"But I made us wait and I was right and you lost," Bubbles said without missing a beat.

Mike laughed. "I'm used to it. I never win with you."

"Well, girls are unequivocally better than boys. Isn't that right, Buttercup?"

Buttercup just smiled and shook her head. Bubbles liked to throw out perfectly-pronounced larger words now and then to put people off balance. Her English vocabulary was nothing to Blossom's, but Bubbles had finer linguistic skills than she usually let on.

"Huh, if that's how you feel no wonder you broke up with me," Mike said. "Better be careful saying stuff like that or you'll have rumors of your own to handle."

"Mike, stop it!" Bubbles admonished in a harsh whisper, as though that would keep Buttercup from hearing.

"Stop what? I know Mitch's full of it and so is everyone who buys into his crap. People just want to bring you three down to their level."

"Well what do you want with us, then?" Buttercup asked, her typical snarl returning for the first time in a long while. It felt so good she almost overdid it.

Mike took a long drag off his cigarette as they stopped for a red light. "I don't want shit from you. You're people. Good people. I don't need to make you into something you're not. I sure as hell don't have to bring you down to feel good about myself. I always feel good about myself."

"Heh. That why you're slowly killing yourself?" Buttercup asked, nodding at the cigarette.

"Nope. That's because I hate the rest of the world."

Buttercup let it go and smiled. Little contact as she had, even she knew Mike better than that. Instead, she enjoyed the scenery. She rarely rode any more. She had, along with her sister, learned to drive (just in case), but that had been years ago.

Bubbles still seemed angry at Mike, though. Mike, of course, at least pretended he couldn't care less.

Buttercup didn't mind the silent ride much, though. She wasn't used to moving so slow so low to the ground, barring walking. It served to distract her from her various problems.

Mike also lived in the suburbs. This was a different part of town than the girls lived in, though. The streets were more rugged and were dotted around the edges will all varieties of home. These were certainly not cookie-cutter dwellings, and people's tastes varied widely in cases.

Mike pulled up to the curb beside his own home. His parents' cars were already in the double-wide driveway.

"Welcome to my oh-so-humble abode," Mike said. He shut off the car and hopped out, not waiting for the girls to follow.

"You've never been here, have you?" Bubbles asked.

"Nope," Buttercup replied, stepping out of the car. Bubbles twisted in her seat and held out her hand. Buttercup only hesitated a little before she grabbed it and pulled Bubbles out of the car. Her shin-length blue skirt slid easily across the leather seat. While Bubbles adjusted her clothes, Buttercup closed the car door.

"Thank you," Bubbles said. "Just follow me. His room's upstairs."

Indeed it was, but on the way they spotted Mike's parents. Bubbles offered a greeting. Buttercup just waved. No real introduction was needed. Buttercup was new to this house, but she was a celebrity in Townsville and most anywhere else in the world.

Mike was clearing a spot on the floor. It was cluttered with clothes, art supplies, and various papers. A small stack of paintings leaned against one wall. Others hung on the walls. One sat on an easel by the window, through which sunlight filtered by a thin shade entered the room.

"Oh, God," Bubbles spouted. She closed the door straight away and leaned back against it. "You didn't tell me it was one of _those_ sketches!"

Buttercup smiled at Bubbles's reaction, but blushed at the painting. She hoped the sketch in question was from when these two were dating.

It wasn't explicit, but it was revealing. The figure at the center was obviously Bubbles lying on her left side, her head towards the right side of the painting. Her right arm draped lazily over her head, which rested at an angle. Her other arm was crooked so as to cover her chest, while her right leg and lower body bent forward to obscure the rest.

"Good God, what if somebody saw this?" Bubbles asked. "And I don't remember all of them in that sketch!"

The central figure of Bubbles was surrounded by various familiar faces in the background. Many of the villains and other corrupt individuals who had crossed paths with the girls were featured there, all looking menacingly or, perhaps, hungrily at the pure, defenseless, almost angelic figure in the center.

"Hey, I waited all summer for you to come by and put a stop to this," Mike said, unphased. "Besides, it's too personal for anyone to see. I was thinking of giving it to you."

"Me? Why would I want that?"

"Heh, I'll take it," Buttercup said. Even as she did she wished she hadn't. She had been thinking along the lines of blackmail, but her recent dilemma with Bubbles made her feel self-conscious as other things came to mind. Thankfully, the other two seemed to ignore her presence.

Mike had stopped smiling, now. "It's about your purity in face of the evils of the world, despite everyone who would bring you down if they could. It's a symbol of your goodness and strength."

"Yeah, and I'm sure if I brought it home dad would just love to hang it right on the mantle!" Bubbles retorted, sarcasm thick.

Buttercup tried not to laugh, even covering her mouth, but she failed. "Yeah. That's more of Bubbles's 'goodness' than he'd want most people to see."

Buttercup felt bad about teasing her sister, so she put her arm around Bubbles and pulled her close. "I think it's sweet. A little weird and creepy, maybe, but sweet."

"See? She likes it," Mike said.

Bubbles didn't pull away or tense up, but Buttercup felt awkward when she stared talking in that squeaky voice that foretold tears. "Those were _our_ sketches, Mike."

"And this is our painting," he started.

"That's _your_ painting!" Bubbles interrupted. "Look, Mike, that was from a very... A very special time for us. We've moved past that. Sometimes... I don't know. Sometimes I think you still obsess about it. It's not good for you, Mike."

"Umm, do you want to talk about this in private?" Mike asked, glancing at Buttercup.

"Why?" Bubbles asked. "We could send her to China and she could still hear us if she wanted."

"No, no, that's okay, I'll go," Buttercup said, trying to pull away. Bubbles grabbed the hand Buttercup had draped around her, though, and held her tight.

Bubbles took a deep breath and paused. "No, I'm sorry, Buttercup. I... I overreacted. I'm sorry to you too, Mike. I know that painting means a lot to you, and I understand what you're trying to say with it. I know you never wanted to upset me." While Bubbles was sometimes as quick to anger as anyone else, she was usually quicker than anyone in to try finding mutual ground and understanding.

"That's all right," Mike offered, clearly of the opinion Bubbles had nothing to apologize for. "I probably should have told you. Or at least warned you before you drug Buttercup along."

Buttercup spoke while she felt she had a chance, "Yeah, about that, maybe I should just get going? I mean, you guys have been apart all summer and--"

Bubbles stopped her, squeezing Buttercup's hand. "That's all right, Buttercup, really."

"No, no. I'm still so tired anyway. I should probably get to bed early." After a pause, not wanting the two to feel too guilty, she added, "Maybe tomorrow, though, huh?"

Mike smiled at her. "Sure, that'd be fine. If you really do like this one, I've got some more sketches and paintings you'd probably like." Looking at Bubbles, he added, "And I don't mean 'those' sketches."

"Sure, sure," Buttercup said noncommittally. "So, uh, what do you call this one?"

"Angel in Darkness."


	6. Openings

**Openings**

Shortly after the end of their junior year, the girls and Professor Utonium had taken a jet to Africa in search of Mojo Jojo. In ten years he'd drifted past middle age, but was still a threat.

They'd linked various thefts of African artifacts to Mojo and believed that he had ill uses for them in mind. When it turned out that one of the museum pieces was a fake, the road led them on Mojo's heels in search of the real one.

So it was that they found themselves in an Egyptian ruin, seeking to recover the artifact the ancient Egyptians had themselves acquired long ago. In the interest of haste, the four of them split into two pairs at the first opportunity.

Bubbles and Buttercup walked through several passages in near-silence for several minutes before Bubbles tried to start a conversation.

"So how have you been, Buttercup?"

"What do you care?" she asked with her characteristic scowl.

"Well, it's just that we never really see each other much. That and you seem upset lately."

"I'm always upset," Buttercup replied. Bubbles had surely heard the rumors about Mitch by now. Buttercup hoped she would just drop the subject.

"You know what I mean. How about using antidote X in training and splitting your knuckles, huh?"

"I'm just tired of holding back all the time. Is that a problem?"

"Overdoing it is," Bubbles countered.

"Well that's _my_ problem then, isn't it?"

"Not if you don't want it to be. You've got a dad and two sisters who love you very much. We all want to see you happy."

"Then you can start by shutting up."

"All right, then," Bubbles sighed. "If that's how you want it, then I'll stop. I just want to say, though, that if you ever want to talk about something, I'm here for you. I mean, I'm not like dad or Blossom. I'll never try to lecture you or anything."

"You talkin' about Mitch?" Buttercup asked menacingly. If her sister thought any of it was true, she just might never speak to Bubbles again.

"Maybe. Is that what's bothering you?"

"You're damn right it's bothering me! Just tell me you think it's true. C'mon, I dare you!"

"Buttercup, I don't know anything. I'd like to think I know you well enough to say you'd never do those things, but I don't! You never talk to me, you never spend time with your family, and you just brush us off whenever we try to make an effort ourselves."

"So you admit it. You think it's true."

"No, I never said that! If anyone asked me, I'd tell them I think you're better than that, and that you'd never settle for a punk like Mitch. But I'm just saying if any of it were true, Buttercup, I wouldn't care. I wouldn't judge you."

"Just shut up!" Buttercup shouted, frustrations boiling over. She had a brief impulse to punch her sister, or at least the wall, but kept that in check. However, doing nothing was more than Buttercup could ask from herself at that moment, and she did push her sister. Even so, she tried to hold back. So when Bubbles went through the wall behind her, Buttercup's open-mouthed shock was understandable.

"Bubbles! Oh, God--I'm sorry!" Buttercup blurted, though she couldn't bring herself to step forward and help Bubbles up.

"I'm all right," Bubbles said, a little surprised at the collapse herself. Sitting up, she looked at the bricks remaining along the hole in the wall. "Look," she said, pointing all around the hole. "None of them broke."

Bubbles hadn't looked her in the eye yet, for which Buttercup was grateful. Bubbles pushed one of the remaining blocks and found it moved easily.

"This wall was fake," Bubbles declared. She turned around and peered into the darkness beyond with her flashlight. After a short walk began a stairway descent into some unknown place. "You didn't push me that hard. Just surprised me is all."

"Bubbles, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to. I just didn't."

Bubbles turned around and smiled, though in the dim light Buttercup could still make out tears welling in her sister's eyes. Aside from that, nothing about her appearance or even her voice indicated she was upset. "That's all right, Buttercup. It's got to be hard to be alone. I'm..." Her voice did start to break here. "I'm actually kind of happy. That's the most honest or sincere thing you've done in front of me for years."

Finally breaking, Bubbles turned away before adding, "I guess maybe that's all I'll ever get."

"Geez, Bubbles," Buttercup started. She stepped up behind her sobbing sister and wrapped her arms around her. "Don't say that."

Buttercup felt bad, but she couldn't help but smile. Bubbles still seemed so weak and emotionally fragile to her. Buttercup figured she didn't need anyone's help to get through her problems, but if Bubbles was the one who needed to talk to someone, _that_ she could handle.

Bubbles's crying lessened slightly, but she remained quiet for a time. Buttercup slowly twisted back and forth, gently rocking her sister. Bubbles even felt soft and delicate, but Buttercup knew better. Physically Bubbles was one of the strongest, toughest people in the entire world, not to mention several neighboring solar systems.

Buttercup caught a whiff of something and stopped moving. Pressing her nose against her sister's hair, she inhaled more deeply.

"That smells nice," Buttercup offered.

Bubbles sniffed. "It's lavender."

"Are you feeling better?" Buttercup asked kindly, hoping they could start moving ahead again.

"A little, maybe. But I already knew you can be there for us sometimes. I just want you to let us do the same for you for once."

Buttercup groaned, releasing her sister and turning around. "Can you just drop it already?"

"I will, Buttercup. If you don't want to talk then I can't make you. But I know you better than that. It's bothering you, or else something else is, and you're just making it worse by not saying anything! If you won't let me help you, then there's nothing I can do, no matter how much I love you or how much it hurts to see you so upset."

Buttercup wavered slightly, but not much. "Yeah, well, I don't remember you coming to me when you broke up with Mike!"

Bubbles continued their back-to-back conversation. "I didn't think you cared much for him. I talked to Blossom about it a little. I even asked dad once. I thought about asking you, but you were always annoyed when I tried to talk to you about anything at all, so I never worked up the nerve to ask."

Buttercup tensed when she felt Bubbles's hand on her shoulder. "I never want you to worry with me, all right? I love you too much, and I like to show it differently than you do. You're always wanting to fix problems. Some problems can't be fixed." Bubbles squeezed her sister's shoulder here. "Sometimes you just need someone to help you live with them."

Buttercup was silent for a minute. "Those things they're saying about me... They're all lies. Every last stinking one of them."

Now Bubbles embraced her sister from behind. Buttercup tensed all over. It was one thing when she did it to Bubbles, but this... It just felt uncomfortable.

"That's so awful," Bubbles said.

Buttercup saw where this was going and squirmed a little. They had a job to do, after all. Bubbles tightened her embrace and said, "No. Please. Please trust me."

Buttercup stopped. "Trust you? I never didn't trust you!"

Bubbles laughed silently, but Buttercup felt it. "You dolt, that's not what I mean. I mean you can trust me to always be there for you. I want you to show me you trust me like that."

Buttercup sighed. Wrapping her arms around her sisters, she took a deep breath to steady herself. "All right. Um... Well, you know Mitch, he, well, he asked me out, and I went, and he treated me like... Like shit." Even at this age the girls kept their bad language to a minimum, so the word coming from her mouth was pretty damning. They were role models to so many, after all, including young children. "Then, he... Uh... He..."

"It's okay," Bubbles whispered, giving her sister a comforting squeeze.

Buttercup had noticed her voice start to waver and grabbed Bubbles's arms, forcefully ending the embrace as she turned around.

Putting on a gruff voice again, Buttercup said, "Nothing happened! Not even close. There's nothing more I have to say, so can we get going already?"

"It's 'cause you were gonna cry, isn't it?" Bubbles asked, smiling through her own tears.

Buttercup groaned in frustration and started walking down the once-sealed passageway. Bubbles darted in front of her and near-tackled her. Buttercup was slammed back against the wall, held by her sister, cracking the masonry and dropping bits of stone and dust on their heads in the process. Bubbles hugged her tightly, chin on her sister's shoulder.

"Darn you, Buttercup! Why do you have to be so ashamed of crying?" Bubbles asked, her voice indicating she apparently had no reservation against weeping herself. "You don't get ashamed when you bleed. When you get cut you bleed, but when something hurts you inside it's different. When something hurts inside, we cry. That's all. There's nothing to be ashamed of, especially not with your sisters! If we're not here for each other then who will be?"

Buttercup pressed her hands on Bubbles's shoulders and pushed her away. Bubbles expected Buttercup would be angry with her again and was surprised by the softness in her sister's face. "Look... If I promise to talk when this is all over, can we just get back to searching right now?"

Bubbles smiled and leaned forward again to kiss Buttercup on the cheek, saying "Thank you," before letting go and starting into the darkness.

Buttercup scrunched her eyebrows in confusion. "Thank me? What did I do?"

Bubbles giggled, "You trusted me, silly!"

Buttercup cocked an eyebrow and watched her sister start down the stairs. In the end she just smiled and shook her head in bewilderment. Her sister was a strange one.


	7. In the Bedroom Again

**In the Bedroom Again**

When Buttercup returned home from Mike's, she tidied up her room a little and briefly considered reading the chapter on chemistry she'd been assigned. She was too tired to take everything in, and a little preoccupied besides. Buttercup wondered about that painting. If Mike knew about how Buttercup had felt, would she have found her face in the background of that painting?

Bubbles lived a seemingly endless cycle of love and joy, though sometimes love hurt. She gave and gave and gave, and Buttercup had received a lot of that. Sure, Bubbles had enjoyed herself in the process, but she could get that anywhere else. But Buttercup had wanted even more. She imagined herself in that painting with a hungry look in her eye, as though she wanted to suck all the goodness out of her sister and leave her dried and withered.

No, it was a stupid fantasy, her thinking she was actually in love with Bubbles. Just a stupid overreaction. It would have been selfish of Buttercup to voice those feelings to Bubbles; to put her through that would have been unforgivable.

Around seven o'clock, Buttercup couldn't keep herself out of bed. She stripped down for the night and crawled under her covers, still rumpled from that morning. She pulled the covers over her head to block out the light and looked forward to getting some good sleep for a change.

However, before she slipped away, her mind still drifted again and again to Bubbles, and she found herself awake and contemplating. Buttercup still wanted to tell Bubbles how much she really loved her, albeit as a sister. She wanted to give something back and show Bubbles how appreciated she was. Every time she tried to put her thoughts aside and decided to worry about it tomorrow, but before long she was thinking about it again.

Rather than driving her to tears, however, she just chuckled softly and muttered to herself, "You're a sad, sad little girl. You know that, right?"

After what seemed like hours, Buttercup heard a soft knocking at her door. She poked her head out of the covers and checked the time. It was only 7:53 P.M.

"Come in," Buttercup asked, even as she used her powers to peer through the door and wall to see Bubbles standing alone outside, looking uncertain. Bubbles could have done to same to see that Buttercup was sleeping, but the sisters had long ago learned to respect one another's privacy better than that.

Bubbles opened the door and paused, probably seeing the dimness of the room. She pushed it open a little more and stuck her head through.

"I'm sorry. I wasn't sure if you were asleep, so... Good night."

Buttercup spoke up before Bubbles disappeared. "No, Bubbles, wait. Come on in."

Buttercup sat up and smiled, gathering her covers about her. Bubbles looked concerned about something, and Buttercup didn't want to turn her away. Besides, maybe she could just have that stupid conversation she was playing out a thousand variations of in her head and get some sleep.

Bubbles opened the door wider again and leaned in. "Are you sure?"

Buttercup nodded and folded her legs under the covers, patting the spot on the bed where they were.

Bubbles smiled and slipped inside, closing the door behind her. She sat down, crossing her legs as well, but left her legs hanging off the bed. Facing her sister, Bubbles said, "I just wanted to apologize one more time for what I said at Mike's today."

Buttercup started shaking her head at "apologize." "Don't worry about it."

Bubbles looked straight ahead for a while, seeing her reflection in Buttercup's mirrored closet doors. After a little while she blushed and asked, "So you really liked the painting? Or were you just being nice to Mike?"

"No, no, I liked it. I kind of agree with it." Buttercup paused. "You're probably too good for this world."

Bubbles laughed. "Yeah, right... But thanks, anyway."

"So, that must have been an...interesting sketch. I don't remember you mentioning any of that when you talked about Mike with me."

Bubbles blushed again. "You once asked if we ever did anything. When I said 'no' I know that's not what you had in mind." Bubbles pulled her knees up to her chest and buried her head in her arms. Voice muffled, she continued, "Besides, it's embarrassing that some guy has naked sketches of me. He could've picked worse."

Buttercup chuckled and leaned forward, turning to sit beside Bubbles and putting her arm around her shoulder. "Mike's not just 'some guy,' and you have nothing to be embarrassed about." Buttercup hesitated only slightly, deciding that what she was about to say wouldn't be that weird coming from just a plain old sister. "Besides, I think you looked very pretty in that painting."

Bubbles lifted her head up to gaze shyly at her sister, blushing. "You really think so?" With her face so near, Buttercup finally noticed how close they were and felt a twinge of modesty with the covers having fallen to her waist.

"Uh...yeah. You're a very pretty girl." Despite herself, she blushed a little as well.

"Aw, Buttercup," Bubbles said, obviously touched. She wrapped her left arm around Buttercup in a sideways hug. "That's a very sweet thing for you to say."

"Well, you always say such nice things to me," Buttercup said, feeling her face grow hotter despite her efforts to convince herself this was just a typical friendly conversation between sisters. She could do no more than stare at the floor while she spoke. "I just want you to know that you really mean a lot to me. I think you're an awesome person, and I appreciate everything you've done for me."

Bubbles offered another squeeze. "Hey, what are sisters for?"

Buttercup smiled and looked up, seeing the two of them in the mirror. Bubbles in her dress, lying her head on Buttercup's shoulder and smiling at their reflection. Buttercup in a sports bra, her hair already messy. Her heart skipped a beat, and she suddenly found it hard to swallow.

"I love you," Buttercup said, automaton-like, hardly aware of the words.

"I love you, too, Buttercup. So are you really going to come with me to Mike's tomorrow, too?"

"Sure," she said.

"I'll be sure to grab some lunch for three, too. You'd better get some sleep, though. You look like you can hardly think straight."

Bubbles kissed her sister on the cheek and rose from the bed. "Good night again," she said as she grabbed the door knob.

"Yeah. Good night," Buttercup said, finally leveling out again.

Then she was alone again, waiting for her heartbeat to settle. She continued to stare at herself in the mirror for several minutes, taking in the outside even as she once again wondered what really lay inside.

Fortunately, this time she was asleep within the hour.


	8. Natural Beauty

**Natural Beauty**

Buttercup heard a soft knocking on her door. She growled and dropped the comic she was reading onto her desk.

Onto the pile of other things on her desk, that is. Africa had been a tiresome month for her, and by the time they had returned home this morning she was more than ready for some quiet relaxation. Sure, it was almost sunset now, but she still wasn't in the mood for company.

"Come in," Buttercup responded as she tilted her chair back and closed her eyes. She didn't bother finding out who it was first. In any case, she'd send them off soon enough.

"Buttercup?" Bubbles asked from the doorway. "Can I come in?"

"Why?" she asked, making her irritation clear.

Buttercup heard her door close again, but Bubbles was still there. "Did you forget your promise?"

_Promise?_ Buttercup thought. _What promise?_ "What, is it my turn to do dishes or something?"

Bubbles leaned against the wall beside Buttercup's desk. Buttercup finally opened her eyes. Mostly just to glare at her sister. Bubbles looked unsure of herself. Whatever it was, she could at least have the decency to decide what the heck she was doing ahead of time.

"It's okay if you're too tired," Bubbles said. "But now that we're done with Mojo, I was wondering if you really were going to finish our talk."

Gradually, Buttercup remembered. She blushed a tiny bit but her expression changed even less. "Look, can we just forget about that? I only said I'd do it because you were upset, anyway. I don't need to talk to anyone about anything, got it?"

Bubbles slumped and stared at the carpet. "Oh. So that's it, huh?"

"Yeah, that's it."

"So it really doesn't bother you anymore?"

"That was weeks ago. I'm over it."

"If you say so, I guess."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Bubbles shrugged. "Nothing. I guess I'll just leave, then. You can go back to being alone if that's what really makes you happy." Bubbles avoided looking at her sister as she pushed off the wall and stepped towards the door. "I'm sorry I bothered you."

Buttercup didn't crook her head any further but still heard her door open and close. She heard Bubbles's door a moment later.

_She'd better not be..._ Buttercup thought to herself, peering through the wall into her sister's room. She didn't worry about the invasion of privacy. Bubbles had only just gone into her room, after all, and as soon as Buttercup confirmed or denied her suspicions she'd stop.

Bubbles sat at her desk/vanity, which was right on the other side of the wall, essentially putting it back-to-back with Buttercup's. Bubbles adjusted what Buttercup knew to be a family portrait, staring quietly at it. Sure enough, she started to tear up in under a minute.

Buttercup loosed a frustrated sigh. Her heart skipped a beat when it seemed Bubbles was staring at her, but she was more likely looking in her mirror. Still, Buttercup felt a little ashamed at the mere thought of being caught spying on her sister, so she stopped.

A few moments and another sigh of frustration later, Buttercup got up and walked to Bubbles's door. She gave it three firm raps.

"Just a minute," Bubbles called. Buttercup waited patiently. Eventually, Bubbles opened her door wide. "Yes?" she asked a little hopefully.

Buttercup took a deep breath and sighed yet again. "Does it really bother you that much?"

Bubbles tilted her head briefly to the side, the gesture echoing her speech. "Maybe."

Buttercup didn't know exactly what to say next, and in the pause, Bubbles continued. "I just have a hard time believing you wouldn't be happier to talk to someone. I know you lost your friends over this, too, and I figured that if you didn't have anyone else that maybe..." Bubbles wasn't sure how to finish the thought.

For a while they just stood there awkwardly, occasionally glancing at each other and once or twice catching each other's eye.

"Damn it," Buttercup muttered to herself. She stepped into Bubbles's room. Bubbles started to back up to make room for her, but Buttercup put her hand on her shoulder and leaned in. She whispered, "Come on. Let's go somewhere quiet."

Buttercup turned around, her hand trailing down her sister's arm and to her hand as she walked away. Bubbles raised her hand up, keeping them in touch as long as she could. After that the surprise had passed, and she grinned as she followed her sister outside.

"Bubbles and I are heading out for a little while," Buttercup said dryly to Blossom, who was lying on the living room couch reading something. "We'll be back before dark."

"Okay," Blossom said, sounding uncaring but cocking an eyebrow momentarily at Bubbles and her smile in contrast to Buttercup's resentment. "I'll see you later, then."

Buttercup flew in the general direction of the ocean, veering to the side when she got closer and following the coast. Bubbles was soon beside her. Buttercup frowned, wondering why going out in the first place wasn't good enough and why her sister couldn't give her a little space on the way.

Eventually Buttercup touched down on a sheer cliff over the ocean. With their speed and the power of flight, the girls had each found a number of isolated, scenic places to go when they needed time alone. This was one of Buttercup's favorites. Sometimes it felt good to just sit and watch the sun go down, or to watch and listen to the waves crashing endlessly at the base of the cliff. The restless power of the ocean was right here, and Buttercup identified with that on some level.

Buttercup sat down on the edge of the cliff. Bubbles walked and sat down a few inches to her right. Buttercup didn't speak at first, and Bubbles remained quiet.

"That bastard betrayed me," Buttercup said. Bubbles neither spoke nor moved. Buttercup's confidence grew a little, and she continued. "I thought he was my friend. I actually wondered if maybe we could have had something more when he asked me out. I was kind of excited about maybe having a boyfriend. I mean, even Blossom went on a couple of dates with that Rick guy.

"Like I said, he kept wanting me to...get physical with him. After the movie, we were in his car, and then..." Buttercup stopped. Her throat was tightening and her voice showed this. She decided she didn't want to stop, though. She found she actually did want to say this. "When he started to feel me up, it was over. It was past over. I punched him in the arm and got out and flew home."

Buttercup was startled when she felt her sister press against her. Bubbles had scooted over and now grabbed Buttercup's hand tightly in her own, wrapping her fingers around it. Buttercup glanced at her sister and saw her cheeks wet with tears, but Bubbles still kept staring at the setting sun.

Buttercup felt an excited feeling in her stomach. Feeling her sister's warmth and closeness was... Well, not just her closeness. Buttercup's eyes wandered down, where Bubbles's skirt rippled gently in the wind. Then she looked at their hands clasped together, Bubbles rubbing gently with her thumb. Buttercup's eyes continued to drift back up along Bubbles's body, resting again on her face. The sunset gave it a more ruddy, lively hue. The way she wore her tears seemed almost unreal. Buttercup felt like she herself was crying _through_ her sister.

Looking out again, Buttercup gave Bubbles's hand a grateful squeeze and continued. "When I got back to school that Monday I saw them talking. I didn't feel like I had to stay away or anything. I mean, Mitch was an asshole, but the rest of them... Well, they were acting a little weird when I sat down to eat. When I left I listened in on them, and that pissed me off a little. What I heard, I mean. Before I knew it Mitch had the whole school believing him. I cornered him and almost beat the hell out of him. I would have, but I was afraid I might... That I might actually kill him or something."

Bubbles remained silent, her thumb still slowly rubbing Buttercup's hand.

"I came out here that day, too. I was so frustrated I almost busted into the cliff. I threw rocks at the ocean instead. As hard as I could. What I really wanted was to lay into something. Hard."

"Yeah," Bubbles said, so very softly. "They had the people at the beach a few miles down clear out of the water that day. From the wake, I guess."

"It's just... It's so frustrating. Holding back all the time."

"Yeah," Bubbles echoed.

"That's why I took the antidote X. I mean, I was at home and had chemical X and stuff, too, so I wasn't worried. I just wanted to lay into something with all my strength for once without it disintegrating. I wanted it to feel real." Buttercup smiled at the thought of herself. "Heh. I guess I'm pretty sad and predictable, huh? Old Buttercup gets frustrated and wants to smash something."

"That's all right," Bubbles said. Buttercup barely heard her over the waves below. "I get frustrated sometimes, too. You know I've had a couple good tantrums."

Buttercup smiled. She certainly had. "Yeah, but I'm always like that. There's always something, and I'm always having to be careful not to break stuff or crush something." Buttercup's voice drifted off and she looked at their hands again. She smiled and squeezed.

"Hey! Ow!" Bubbles spouted, surprised. Buttercup hadn't really squeezed hard enough to hurt her, but she was surprised at the force. Bubbles gave her sister an incredulous look, but smiled despite it. "Jerk."

Buttercup smiled back and stood, still holding her sister's hand, but more gently. Bubbles rose with her. Buttercup let go and twisted her hand, adjusting her grip before their fingers interwove again, palm-to-palm. Buttercup grabbed Bubbles's other hand similarly.

"Oh no!" Bubbles exclaimed in mock terror. Buttercup tightened her grip and started pushing. Bubbles laughed and did the same. Buttercup's silence was firm and menacing, aside from her close-mouthed smile.

Then Buttercup adjusted her feet and really got into it. Bubbles did the same and tried to hold her ground. She squealed in a mixture of delight and terror as she started sliding back, practically plowing the dirt with her toes.

"Ah!" she cried, when one of her feet slid out of the dirt. Buttercup's force carried her forward, so she plowed right into her sister. Buttercup wrapped her arms around Bubbles and reflexively used her powers of flight to stop their descent. Bubbles's heels and Buttercup's toes rested on the ground, but their heads were still a few feet above it. Bubbles could have hovered, too, but just hung limply in her sister's arms.

They just smiled at each other, still enjoying the innocent play. Buttercup caught a whiff of that lavender scent again. _She smells nice,_ she thought casually to herself.

All of a sudden, Buttercup felt a little uncomfortable. She was very aware of her arms wrapped around her sister's back, and of Bubbles's arms around hers. Their faces, mere inches apart. She felt her sister's breath. She noted that Bubbles's face had an appealing sort of glow in the fading daylight.

Bubbles noticed her sister's smile fade. She knew Buttercup wasn't the touchy-feely type, and figured she was probably too embarrassed to get out of the situation. So she started hovering herself. She tilted forward, putting her hands on Buttercup's shoulders to help push her back up as well.

Then they were standing, but still pressed together; Buttercup's hands on the small of her sister's back, Bubbles's hands on her sister's shoulders, arms scrunched up.

"Thanks," Bubbles said again. "For trusting me," she added.

"You're welcome," Buttercup said, letting go and stepping back. A little uncomfortable and confused, she looked at the red sky, the sun now out of view.

"If you really do want to hear about Mike, we can go to that field I like tomorrow. We can make a picnic out of it or something."

"Um... Sure. Yeah, why not?"

"So do you want to get back? Blossom may start to worry."

"You go ahead. I'll be right back."

"Okay. I know you like to be alone sometimes. I think everybody does. But at least you know you don't have to be alone if you don't want to, right?"

"Right," Buttercup said, still not looking away from the ruddy skyline.

Bubbles took off, leaving Buttercup alone with her thoughts.


	9. What Is It?

**What Is It?**

Buttercup awoke to her alarm this time. She shut it off quickly but remained in bed for a few moments to let the fog clear.

Almost right away the thoughts started coming back, but she ignored them. Her habits left her little time to get ready for school and her mind was still a little fuzzy, so it was easy enough to keep occupied. Much easier to not think at all.

She threw on a black t-shirt and yesterday's jeans. She gave her hair a little more attention with the brush, ensuring the tangles were undone. She noticed her bare nails and made a mental note to put some polish on tonight.

Buttercup left her room as soon as she slipped on her backpack. This time she thundered down the stairs instead of taking flight and even stopped by the kitchen. The professor wasn't usually up to see his girls off, but Blossom was already there, finishing a bowl of cereal and eyeballing the newspaper. She glanced up at her sister. "On time today?"

"Uh huh," Buttercup replied, digging through the cupboards for something to eat on her leisurely flight to school. She grabbed a granola bar just as Bubbles spoke from behind.

"Morning. Toss me a breakfast bar?"

Buttercup complied, tossing Bubbles one of the soft bars with the fruit filling she'd asked for. Maybe Bubbles took more time to care for her appearance, but her breakfast habits were as bad as Buttercup's.

Buttercup ran her eyes down Bubbles. Over white hose she wore a shorter blue skirt today, just above the knees. Under a vest-like blue coat was a ruffled white shirt. She looked good, as always.

And so it kicked off. She didn't show it outwardly, but she was thinking about her unusual affection for her sister again. All the way to school, and for the first part of her class, her mind was somewhere else.

Just yesterday she'd determined to forget about it and get back to normal life. After Bubbles had sat beside her last night, though, she was forced to admit she didn't quite have a handle on things.

Bubbles was beautiful. She hadn't always thought that, but she did now. There was no denying that Buttercup was physically attracted to her sister, even to the point physical closeness couldn't help but stir certain feelings.

If that were all, it would be cut and dry. In her mind, Buttercup would be nothing but a sick freak with a problem to overcome. But that wasn't all.

Buttercup loved her sister and more strongly than she ever had. She trusted her, cared for her, and wanted to see her happy. If that were all it was, it would still be simple. Yesterday she'd convinced herself it was that simple, that it was just a powerful sisterly love. But that wasn't all of it either.

Did that matter? Taken separately, they were simple enough. Should she look at it any differently because she felt both of those things? Is that what love was?

Besides, were those things even connected? Could it be that the love was familial and the rest was, in a word, unrelated?

Buttercup hadn't enjoyed close contact with people. Bubbles had changed that for her (at least where Bubbles herself was concerned). After she'd gotten over the strangeness of it as well as the strangeness of her reaction to it, Buttercup had honestly enjoyed it. Not even in any intimate fashion. She simply enjoyed the hugs, sitting side-by-side, holding hands, letting Bubbles lay her head in her lap, and even Bubbles's quick kisses on the cheek. Buttercup herself had so far been unable to work up the nerve to give Bubbles even a friendly kiss like that.

Buttercup wondered if it was just that she'd never allowed anybody to get that close. Maybe she really was, as Bubbles would put it, the touchy-feely type. Maybe she just didn't know it.

How much of this was Bubbles making her feel that way and how much of it was that nobody else made her feel this way before? Just because no one else had, did that mean no one else would? Or could?

Bubbles was a girl. Buttercup hadn't thought of any other girls as attractive. Sure, she could tell whether another girl looked nice or not, but she'd never felt anything. Even now that wasn't any different. She didn't feel the same way towards the other girls at school, or to Blossom.

There was a question. Could Buttercup ever feel the same way to Blossom?

She didn't think so. Blossom was usually too cold, not to mention preoccupied. Bubbles was kind and warm and did a lot that brought out good things in Buttercup.

There she went again, she noticed. Making Bubbles out to be some untouchable angelic creature. An "Angel in Darkness" indeed. Maybe she and Mike had more in common than they realized. He'd loved Bubbles once. Maybe he still did. Buttercup would have to try talking to him sometime, if she could figure out a roundabout way to approach the subject.

Heck, maybe she'd fall in love with him and could just get over this weirdness with her sister. They already had one thing in common, after all.

As soon as she thought that, a part of her rebelled against the idea. She didn't want anyone else. She didn't want to lose Bubbles.

If that were true, why couldn't she just drop it? If Buttercup told Bubbles how she felt, she might not lose her but things would be different. Bubbles would probably still love her, but she'd become more uncomfortable. She'd love Buttercup, yes, but Buttercup imagined it would be more like pity, like Buttercup was somehow damaged.

Unless, maybe, Buttercup explained it right. Made it clear that she wasn't obsessed with the idea of them together. Perhaps Buttercup could play it down. Make a light conversation out of it somehow, and maybe see if Bubbles felt or could feel the same way. Let her know that Buttercup was happy with what they had.

No, no, no. That would be stupid.

Maybe instead she could ask Bubbles what she thought about love in general. She'd talk about that. Then if it seemed like there was a good opening, Buttercup could work in the idea of...

No, that didn't sound right either.

Maybe...

"Buttercup?"

She looked up. Her English teacher looked like she had been trying repeatedly to get Buttercup's attention.

"Buttercup, are you with us? Are you feeling all right this morning?" Mrs. Jones was one of the nicer teachers. Especially to her hometown heroines.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. Just a little distracted."


	10. Fields and Dreams

**Fields and Dreams**

Bubbles spread a quilt on the ground of the old wheat field. Normally she liked to just lay there and watch the sky, but this time she had company. She and her sisters had come to this farm when they were twelve, for a span of a few weeks they were without powers. The Professor's uncle owned it, and was glad to give them a place to hide out. That had been a memorable time for all of them, but Bubbles was the only one who still came here sometimes.

Life was often too complicated and stressful. When they were kids, they'd had some good games of tag and hide-and-seek out in these fields. For Bubbles, they remained a symbol of simpler, gentler life. They were almost normal for those few weeks. She thought her sisters had been more playful and carefree than they'd been for years leading up to that, but when their powers were restored it was back to saving the day and thrashing their enemies.

Bubbles smiled at her sister. Buttercup looked a little out of place holding a picnic basket, although her clothes alone were unusual for her. Bubbles had settled for jeans and a blue polo, but Buttercup had worn something a little dressier for a change.

The girls generally dressed however they individually preferred, and their wardrobes showed that. However, they still had a few items that were identical, save the color. Buttercup had chosen her green vest and skirt over white leggings and ruffled white shirt. Bubbles hadn't said anything, neither about Buttercup actually wanting to wear it or, for that matter, wearing it to a wheat field. She was just happy her sister bothered coming out here with her and wasn't about to do anything to make Buttercup regret it.

Bubbles felt so alone at times. She had a few good friends and was grateful for them all. They could sympathize with her, but there were things Bubbles knew only her sisters could really understand.

Buttercup had seemed a little distracted since their talk last night. Bubbles figured her sister had probably not given these things a lot of thought. Buttercup probably had a lot to think about, including reevaluating her relationship with Bubbles. Not to mention she was probably only now really thinking about where her life had ended up now that Mitch had tossed her aside.

Bubbles decided she'd just be there for her sister and show all the patience and kindness it took.

They sat in silence on the old quilt for a few minutes. Bubbles just took in the fresh air and scenery, sometimes looking to the clouds. She eventually noticed Buttercup seemed a little on edge and felt guilty for making her uneasy by waiting. "You look nice today," Bubbles said.

"Thanks." Smiling, Buttercup added, "You look great."

Bubbles smiled back. It felt good to see Buttercup happy. It felt better to be the one making her feel that way. "So do you want to eat or would you like us to talk first?"

Buttercup shrugged. To Bubbles, it seemed like her sister wasn't sure she even wanted to be there right now.

"Well," Bubbles said, rising and walking on her knees to her sister. She put her hand on Buttercup's chest and gently laid her back. Buttercup seemed panicked at first but went down easily. Leaning over her sister, Bubbles finished with, "Why don't we watch the clouds while I talk about Mike, then?"

"Um, why?"

Bubbles shrugged as well as she could with one arm holding her up. "We don't have to. You just seemed more comfortable when we're not looking at each other."

Buttercup blushed. Bubbles thought it was sweet but hoped her sister would get over it. They were family; there was no need to be ashamed.

"What do you mean by that?" Buttercup asked, her eyes suddenly anywhere but on her sister.

"Nothing. I just want you to be comfortable. You can sit back up if you want."

"No, that's all right," Buttercup answered quickly.

"Well all right then," Bubbles said, lying beside her sister. She rested her hands on her belly and watched the clouds for a few moments before she began.

"Mike and I have been best friends for years. For a long time, I didn't think of him as anything more. One day we were at his house and he just kinda broke down. I kind of admire the courage it must have taken him to say how he felt about me. I just couldn't say no. I mean, I hadn't thought about it, so maybe it would be good, you know?

"And it was good. We had a lot of fun, and we... We have some good memories. He never really pressured me to do anything, though. Almost the opposite of Mitch. In fact..."

Bubbles paused, wondering whether to go on. She'd never told anyone about this before. Eventually, she decided she'd come clean. "If anything, I don't think he'd have been comfortable... I tried, even. I mean... Well, Mike thinks very highly of me. He puts me up on a pedestal in his mind. I really liked him, and maybe I might have...you know...gone further. But eventually I felt like he was more in love with the idea of me. I mean, it was sweet and all, but... I don't think that's love."

Bubbles sighed and turned to her sister, who was still looking skyward. Bubbles reached out and took her sister's hand, clasping it like they had last night. Buttercup looked a little uncertain, but smiled. They turned back to the clouds.

"It was really hard for me, but I had to break it off. Both for Mike and for me. I'm glad that we were able to stay good friends, though. I wasn't sure how he would take it. He acted like it wasn't that big a deal, but I know it bothered him. I... I know I probably shouldn't have, but I listened to him after I left for home. He cried for a good while. I wanted so badly to go over and take it all back. I really want the people I love to be happy, but it just wouldn't have been right, you know?"

"Do you remember Rick?" Buttercup asked suddenly.

"Blossom's guy? Yeah, I remember him."

"Do you think any of us will ever find a guy?"

Bubbles giggled, "At this point I'm almost ready to give girls a try."

"R--really?" Buttercup asked.

Bubbles laughed. "No, not really. But I do wonder sometimes if we'll ever find anyone. But I don't let it bother me. We're still young, after all. I mean, I've only had one boyfriend. Mike and I--well, I broke up with Mike because the love just wasn't there. Blossom and Rick split up because... Well, I think Blossom did it just for the experience. I'm not saying she's that heartless or anything. The three of us show our love differently. And you can forget about Mitch--I don't think he should count."

"Heh. That sounds about right."

"I think we just need to be patient. Blossom would probably think I'm hopeless for feeling this way, but I know it'll work out in the end."

"Yeah," Buttercup said wryly. "We'll probably find it where we least expect it."

Bubbles giggled. "That's the spirit." She sat up and led Buttercup to follow suit. "So, ready for those sandwiches?"

Buttercup opened her mouth, but waited until she knew what to say before speaking. Her smile when she did made Bubbles feel warm inside. "Do you remember that time out here when we were kids?"

"Yeah. I think about it a lot when I come here, actually."

"How about a game of tag?"

Bubbles immediately thought that was a bad idea, but tried not to show it. "I don't know. It just wouldn't be as fun if we couldn't go all-out. If we got carried away, we could really tear things up. Maybe hide-and-seek?"

Buttercup seemed as opposed to that as Bubbles was to tag. "What's the fun in that? With x-ray vision and super hearing I could probably find you if you hid on the back side of the moon. We'd be holding back even worse."

"Well, you could whoop my butt in Mario Kart when we get home."

"Screw freaking Mario Kart!" Buttercup blared. She stood up and pulled Bubbles up with. They hadn't stopped holding hands yet. "I don't want to sit on my butt and play video games! I can fly! I can smash mountains, outrun bullets--we can do anything! I want to let loose, I want to have fun, I--"

Buttercup stopped. She looked at sister's hand, held in her own. She looked up at Bubbles, continuing in a calm but earnest voice. "I want to be with you. I want to spend time with you and be happy together."

Bubbles smiled and slipped her hand out of her sister's to wrap her in a hug. Buttercup returned it in earnest, squeezing with enough force to crush an I-beam, though to Bubbles it just felt nice.

"I love you too, sis," Bubbles sighed.


	11. Business as Usual

**Business as Usual**

Friday came with little fanfare. Bubbles and Buttercup hadn't made it to Mike's yet. A trio of creatures from Monster Isle had pretty well ruined one day. Another was tied up by a rapid-fire series of high-profile robberies committed by ordinary, though brainwashed citizens. Those, it turns out, served only to obscure a different theft by a visiting villain, Mental the Malicious.

Then, much to their surprise, a young Mojo stepped onto the scene again, causing just enough damage to show everyone he was back in the game. Best they could figure, the artifact hunt prompted by the aged Mojo last summer had been, at least in part, a ruse. Mojo had found a way to restore his youth, and they weren't sure what would come of that. Chemical X had helped Mojo age gracefully, but the girls had already written him off as destined to fade into the background long before they did.

But Friday, of course, was the day the sisters had agreed to do some near-space training.

The durable, leather-like suits weren't strictly necessary. The girls could get by even with small amounts of oxygen at extremely high altitudes and could hold their breath in the vacuum of space for several minutes even at a high rate of activity. Even the extremes of heat and cold were bearable. Still, even with their abilities they hadn't made it this far by being reckless.

Blossom stretched and twisted to better settle into the form-fitting bubblegum pink suit. Her sisters likewise tried to get comforatble.

"Bubbles, could you help me with my hair?" Blossom asked. After Bubbles put her hair up, Blossom put on her helmet. Bubbles undid her ponytails to let her hair down before doing likewise.

Before her helmet closed on her, Blossom heard a quiet, slightly surprised "Hmm" escape from Buttercup's lips.

"What's up? Suit still fit?" Blossom asked over the helmet radio.

"No, I just never see Bubbles with her hair down. It looks nice."

Bubbles giggled inside her suit, then switched her radio on, "I think the less effort someone puts into their appearance the better Buttercup thinks they look."

Blossom smiled, "That would explain her grooming habits." She was glad her sisters were spending more time together, not to mention actually getting along. Blossom had started to worry a little about Buttercup after the Mitch incident. Just so long as her sister vented her frustrations somewhere other than on Mitch's person, she was satisfied.

"All right, girls, enough of that. Now I think two hours should be enough for us to get a feel for it again. Dad enhanced the oxygen recyclers, by the way, so we could probably get eight hours if we needed. Don't forget to change them out when we get back. And if anything goes wrong with the suits, let the others know. If your radio goes out--"

"Girls?" Professor asked, knocking on the door. "Are you decent?"

Bubbles pulled her helmet off. "Come in, dad!"

Professor Utonium poked his head around the door. "Blossom, I was just on the phone with your astronomy teacher. It sounds like it wasn't originally on course for Earth, but it seems to have shifted direction."

Blossom replied, her voice muffled through the helmet. "Strange, but somehow I'm not surprised. I guess we'll find out what's going on Wednesday. Is there anything you--"

"Already working on a long distance Spethocologram, sweetie."

"Thanks, dad. We should be back by six."

"All right. I'll try to have supper ready. Does spaghetti and garlic bread sound good, girls?"

They nodded their assent. Bubbles put her helmet back in place.

Blossom let loose her battle cry, "Let's go, girls!"

Two hours of maneuvering and drills later, the girls were finally just starting to work up a sweat. Back home, they took their turns in the shower and gathered around the dinner table. Typically Blossom sat beside her dad, with Buttercup and Bubbles, respectively, sitting across from them. Bubbles was last to join them.

As she filled her plate, Professor commented, "Bubbles, no pigtails tonight?"

Bubbles smiled and nodded at Buttercup. "She thinks I look good with my hair down."

Buttercup blushed and said, "Shut up," before shoveling a forkful of spaghetti into her mouth.

Blossom couldn't resist a little tease, "Buttercup, if I didn't know better I'd think you were sweet on your sister."

Buttercup choked a little on her food and looked wide-eyed at Blossom. "Wh--" She coughed. "What?"

Blossom laughed. The reaction had been priceless. "I'm just kidding, Buttercup. Lighten up a little."

Professor attempted to console her. "Don't let Blossom bother you, honey. It makes me very happy to see you girls getting along so well again."

Bubbles laughed a little now. She set her plate down but didn't sit. First she wrapped her arms around Buttercup from behind, kissing her sister on the cheek and then snuggling up cheek-to-cheek. "Don't be so mean, Blossom. After a jerk like Mitch I bet even I must look pretty good."

Bubbles let her sister go and took her seat. Buttercup continued to blush as they ate in silence for several minutes. Blossom did feel a little bad, but Buttercup made it so easy sometimes. As she sought something to talk about to change the mood a little, she remembered. "Oh, so did you finish the Spethocologram?"

"The computer's analyzing the results. No immediate red flags."

"That's good," Blossom replied. "Maybe we'll get off easy, yet."

"Ha!" Buttercup spouted. "Since when have we ever gotten off easy in anything?"

"There's always hope," Bubbles said. "Things have got to go our way sometimes, right?"

"Personally, I'm more worried about Mojo," Professor said. "I'm not sure how he restored his youth. We don't even know if it's permanent or if it will drive him to worse crimes to try to keep it up."

Blossom couldn't help but note her dad's pepper-like graying hair. "We'll just have to wait and see where that leads," she said. "I admit, though, it bothers me, too. I don't think that's something he could pull off with his own inventions, which means he slipped something by us on this one. Who knows what else he's managed?"

"Screw Mojo," Buttercup said, rising with her empty plate. "So he'll be around longer than we expected." She rinsed her plate off in the sink. "Big deal. _I'm_ more worried about my history quiz tomorrow. I'm headed upstairs."

Blossom smirked, "To read the chapters you should have started Monday, no doubt."

"Whatever," Buttercup said, smirking back. "It's probably the most normal thing about me." Her smirk vanished. "Maybe the only thing normal about me."

Before Blossom could ponder her meaning, her sister was gone. She didn't worry much, though. Besides, Bubbles was in a better position to help Buttercup work through whatever might be bothering her.


	12. Angel in Darkness

**Angel in Darkness**

Saturday, Buttercup wasn't surprised to find out that Bubbles was awake before she was. She lounged in front of the T.V.

"Morning," Buttercup said, leaning on the second floor railing.

"Hey, Buttercup," Bubbles replied, looking up.

"Do you feel like going to Mike's today?"

"Oh yeah! I'm so sorry, but I forgot to tell you that I've got plans today. I talked with Katie after lunch and she wants to catch up on things. I'd invite you with, but I don't know how Katie would feel."

"Oh, no, that's all right," Buttercup said.

"You can just head over to Mike's yourself, if you want. Heck, you could go now. He has about the same sleeping habits you do. I think he'd appreciate the company."

"You know... I just might do that. Do you have his number?"

"Don't bother. He hates talking on the phone. Just show up and surprise him."

Buttercup cocked an eyebrow. "You're kidding, right? Wouldn't that be a little out of character for me?"

"What? Barging in without warning?"

Buttercup laughed. "No, stupid, I mean showing up at his place, by myself, acting like I'm too eager to bother calling first."

"Pshaw! Don't sweat it. Just tell him it way my idea. Not that I'd care if he took it the wrong way. Just so you know, if you two get together, you've got my blessing all the way."

"Ha! Just for saying that I aught to not go at all."

"Oh, come on, Buttercup, I'm just teasing. You'll have a good time. Get him to show you some more of his art if you really like it so much."

"Yeah, maybe I'll check out some of your 'special sketches.'"

"Oh, grow up!"

Buttercup laughed and went downstairs to find something to eat. This might not be so bad a day, after all. She wanted some time alone with Mike to talk about Bubbles anyway. She wasn't sure how she'd approach it, but she wasn't worried. After all, Bubbles was about all the two of them had in common. It'd happen.

Buttercup smiled. How in common, Mike would just have to stay in the dark about.

Later, she was standing at Mike's front door. She hesitated, taking a deep breath before ringing the bell. Part of her was still sure Bubbles was setting her up somehow.

The door opened. It was Mike's father. "Oh! Hello, Buttercup. Are you looking for your sister? She's not here."

"Um, no. Actually, is Mike here?"

"Oh. Oh! Sure, sure, he's here. Just head on upstairs. I'd knock first, but he's probably up." He winked and elbowed the air in her direction, "Not that with eyes like yours there's anything you couldn't see if you wanted."

Buttercup blushed. Mike's mom called out from another room. "Honey! Stop teasing the girl! Just go right on up, dear!" The last part was obviously addressed to Buttercup.

Avoiding the man's eye, she walked up the stairs. The floor creaked as she got closer to his room, and she was startled when he opened the door just as she raised her hand to knock.

"Hi, B--" Mike started, smiling. That smile went away. "Hi, Buttercup." He stuck his head in the hallway and looked around. "Sorry. I heard my mom and thought..."

Buttercup wrapped her arms around herself and took a long, hard look at the molding of the doorway. She smiled, but this was a little awkward. She didn't blame him, though. She was hardly in a place to complain about obsession with Bubbles.

She continued looking to the side as she spoke. The few times she glanced at Mike, he was doing the same. "She's visiting Katie today. She thought you wouldn't mind if I dropped by, though."

His response was curt. "I don't. Do you want to come in?"

"Sure."

Mike stepped back and invited her in with a grandiose wave of his arm. After he closed the door he hopped onto his bed and picked up a sketchbook, seemingly ignoring Buttercup.

She didn't think less of him for that, either. She'd been as cold with people before. However, after a few minutes of no response from Mike, she took that as leave to be a little rude to him in return. She walked over to where Mike's paintings leaned against the wall. The easel with Angel in Darkness was behind a sheet. Buttercup thought it made sense he wouldn't normally leave it exposed for anyone looking into his room to see.

"Hey, careful with those!" Mike said, though he remained seated.

"I will be. Besides, that's what you get for not offering me the tour."

Mike laughed, a quiet chuckle. "That's all you wanted? Do you really like my art that much?"

Her back to Mike, Buttercup smiled and set the painting down. She walked to Mike's bed and sat on the corner, then turned to rest one of her legs on the bed.

"You love Bubbles, don't you?"

Mike was a little defensive in the face of Buttercup's brazenness, but he tried to sound pleasant enough. "We went out. You know that."

"That's not what I asked."

"And why would I want to talk with you about that? For that matter, why do you care?"

Buttercup shrugged. "I...figured my sister was about the most common ground we have. Something to talk about."

"Well, don't feel like you have to come up with topics. I don't mind the quiet."

"Um... Actually, I really did feel like talking. I thought that with Bubbles off somewhere else now would be a good time."

"Ah, the plot thickens." Mike set his sketch book aside and adjusted slightly to face Buttercup head on. "All right, you've snared my interest."

Buttercup found herself speechless for a while. Mike wasn't entirely like her. More like her to the extreme, plus mood swings. That wasn't the main cause of the hesitation, though. "Um, I guess this is harder that I expected."

"Ha! Who would have figured you would be more reserved than your sister. Bubbles figures the best thing to do is speak your mind and be honest."

"Well, good for her. Some things aren't that simple."

"I'm not sure I agree with that."

Buttercup smirked and half-glared at him. "Well, I don't feel like arguing it." Letting off, she added, "Besides, this isn't that bad. I guess... Well, I've never really been with a guy, you know?"

"Um, Buttercup, I think you're great and all, but that's probably asking a little too much of me a little too soon," Mike teased.

Buttercup laughed. "Not that, you dick. I just... I mean... I guess I wanted to talk about--" Buttercup stopped and shook her head. "You know, I don't think I care that much after all. Care to show me some of your sketches instead?"

"Oh, no no no no. You aren't getting off that easy. What is it?"

Buttercup blushed and stared at the carpet of the cluttered room. "I was going to talk about relationships in general." She looked back at Mike. "How you and Bubbles were and stuff."

"Heh. You must be desperate if you're coming to me for advice." He nodded at the painting behind the sheet. "In case you haven't noticed, I still have some issues of my own to sort through. Besides, there's no such thing as 'relationships in general.' No more than there's people in general. You just have to go with what you feel sometimes."

"But what if what you feel is wrong?" Buttercup asked before she checked herself.

"Um, I'm not sure what you mean by that. I will say that sometimes the heart wants strange things. People aren't cookie-cutter gingerbread men. Or women. Forgive me if I'm misreading this, but even though society may be against a lot of things, I have a hard time imagining 'wrong love.'"

Buttercup was blushing fiercely by this point. "I think that may have come out wrong. But thanks."

Mike slid to the end of the bed and sat similarly to Buttercup. He put his hand on her shoulder and said, "Figuring out love can be a hard thing. Sometimes the heart lies. Sometimes the mind does. To find the right person, you've got to see through it all. You can't always just know someone is perfect, or just feel that they're right for you. Sometimes you can even have both of those things, sometimes neither of them, and still get it wrong. There are no easy answers when it comes to love, but at some level... I think at some place beyond the heart, beyond the mind, we just...understand."

Mike assumed Buttercup's thoughtful smile was in some way a shot at him. He smiled, though. "Well, there's a romantic's viewpoint, anyway. I hope it helped somehow."

"I couldn't say," Buttercup said. Her voice was pleasant. That, too, had been rare before Bubbles gave her something to smile about. "I guess with love the easy answer is usually 'no.'"

"Maybe, but it's not always the right one. I don't know who you've got in mind or where you'll end up, but I envy him. Or her. Or whatever it is. You and your sisters are awesome people. I mean, I don't think anyone can make me feel the way Bubbles did. Does, I mean. She says I think too highly of her, but I honestly can't imagine finding someone as fun and loving and generous and trustworthy and beautiful and good and..." Mike's attention snapped back to present company. "Well, you know what I mean."

Buttercup smiled and nodded, looking away again. "Yeah. Yeah, I do. Bubbles is... Yeah. She's something else, all right."

"It's good to hear someone agrees with me. Maybe I'm not half as crazy as everyone says I am."

Buttercup looked back and smirked. "Or maybe I'm even crazier."

Mike laughed. "Maybe you have a fun side, after all. Now was that all you wanted or--"

"Hell, no," Buttercup interrupted. "Break out those sketches you wanted to show me. You aren't the only one who needs a break from reality now and again."


	13. Pry with Prejudice

**Pry with Prejudice**

Princess Morbucks clacked away at her laptop, ignoring the class around her. The teacher had given her a sour look but said nothing. He didn't dare speak against her.

Princess had just been expelled from a very exclusive private school for girls. It was a Christian institution and their values had obscured their common sense. Expelling her would be a fatal move for their part, she would ensure. Her father was more upset with Princess, however, and had decided she would spend the rest of her senior year in a public high school.

Even so, she had ensured high placement, evidenced by the honors class she was currently ignoring. This was only one such class, but she paid the others as little heed.

Princess shot a glare at Blossom, who was legitimately present and engaged in a mild debate with the teacher over something of no interest to Princess.

She bet those girls could effortlessly get away with more than Princess ever could, even with the vast resources at her fingertips. All princess had done was have a little fun with some guys and arrange for some very...interesting parties.

Well, that was most of it, anyway. At least she'd gone out of her way to stick with guys; some of her friends had turned to each other at least once. A lot of people would probably hate Princess even more if she'd done the same and been caught.

Princess sneered when the teacher congratulated Blossom for her insight. She'd bring those girls down a few notches. It wasn't fair, after all, that Princess should suffer a decline while they walked about freely.

She started a chat with her favorite private investigator. Like everyone else she held under her thumb, he was available day and night by any and every means of communication.

Or else.

She told him where to show and when, so after class she met him beside the school. She didn't care if she'd be late for the next class.

He was already there when she showed--a wise move. Danny Rye, Private I. Or Daniel Smith, according to his birth certificate, but he kept that to himself. He was forty-one and divorced. Permanently on retainer for Princess, he spent most of his time drinking or smoking, and it showed.

"I want you to watch the Powerpuff Girls. I want dirt. Real or fake, so long as it holds."

"Anything in particular in mind?"

"The worse the better. I know they've got problems, but I don't want evening news. I want CNN. Puffgate. Show everyone those whores aren't any better than the rest of us."

"What do I have to work with?"

"I already wired the funds. You should have plenty. Don't be stingy with it--I'll reimburse your expenses. Spare no effort. Do this right and you can retire if you want. Do it wrong..." Princess grinned malevolently. "You won't have a choice."

He swallowed hard. "I might bring in outside help."

Princess waved her hand. "That's your prerogative. Under no circumstances does this come back to me if you raise someone's suspicions."

"Do I have a time frame?"

"Oh, yeah. Yeah, there's a time frame. I'm not sure what it is just yet, but let's not try and find out, all right?"

He nodded. "How should I contact you?"

"You shouldn't. No direct contact. My people will talk to you."

"When and where?"

"Whenever and wherever."

He nodded again. One way or another, his career was over. If he pulled this off, even if his name wasn't associated with it, he was out of here. He wasn't about to risk Princess pulling him out of retirement next time she wanted something done. He knew how to hide, and if he hid well enough it would take another P.I. to find him, maybe that would be enough to keep her interest off of him. He'd seen enough of Princess's handiwork to know that one day's success paved the way to another's bitter end.

He respected the girls and all they did, but he had to hope he succeeded.

Within hours he had two trusted colleagues doing some digging for him. He also obtained some pretty advanced surveillance equipment. He wasn't used to using money to obtain the unobtainable, but the size of his bank balance was more than he could think about. It took the fun out of the job, really. Unfortunately, there was no fun in this job to begin with.

He was back at the school with time to spare before final bell. A pink streak shot towards the suburbs. He swore at himself for not thinking to wait near their home. It wasn't easy to trail a superhero. But he saw no signs of the other two girls at first.

Then he saw them together, with some grungy looking boy. His hopes were immediately raised. He'd learned that people could really surprise you, but like with most books the cover made a good starting point. To him the boy smelled of pot, beer, and sex. Unfortunately, even that would be little more than "evening news" as Princess had phrased it.

Still, it was a start. He watched the three climb into a convertible and drive off. Danny started his car and slipped in a few cars behind. Most of the after school traffic had thinned, at least in the parking lot. When he got onto the road he was careful to keep his distance. A one-man tail could be a hit-or-miss ordeal, and you had to balance the risks and gains. In this case, he couldn't afford any risk.

It wasn't any surprise when he lost track of them. Normally he'd have done his homework from more of a distance before moving in like this, but he had other people on that and no time to waste.

His first real breakthrough was on day three. By then he knew the boy's name was Mike and was familiar with the girls' various friends and acquaintances. He'd planted bugs here and there, too. Long distance microphones and laser microphones, aimed at the places he was interested in. He might have just been paranoid, but it seemed less likely they would be spotted. With the kind of money he had it was nothing. Plus, he seemed to remember something about someone planting bugs inside the girls' home one. It hadn't ended well, as he recalled.

He didn't hear much of interest. Common sense told him to keep an eye on Blossom, who went off alone more often. His hunches led him to the other two.

Bubbles, Buttercup, Katie, and Alice were at an outdoor pool. The pool was closed because the pumps had failed but Alice, employed there part-time, let them in. Danny watched and listened from a roof across the street. Not even the dirty old man mentality could keep the scenery interesting for that long, but he kept watching.

Eventually Katie and Alice let themselves out and locked up. Bubbles and Buttercup could fly out, after all. All four would have just left together, but it sounded like Bubbles, who'd been lying on her belly and tanning, had fallen asleep. Danny knew the girls had been involved in some late-night superheroics last night. Something involving a meteor. The other three girls had agreed to leave Bubbles to her nap for a while longer.

He watched Buttercup walk and sit beside her sister.

"Are you up?" Buttercup asked softly. There was no reply.

Danny watched closely, though his eyes were strained from spending so much time looking through the device. It seemed... But, no, that can't be right. Buttercup seemed to be giving her sister a good once-over with her eyes.

Bubbles had undone her bikini top to avoid tan lines, leaving her back fully exposed. Buttercup started to reach out, but drew her hand back. She looked around and grabbed a bottle of suntan lotion. She spurted some onto her hands and then hesitated. When she started rubbing it into her sister's back, something didn't quite feel right to him.

"Mmmm," Bubbles moaned groggily. She leaned up a little and turned. "Buttercup?"

"Oh. Hey, sleepy. I was just, um... Suntan lotion."

Bubbles sat up, holding her top in place with one arm and rubbing her eye with her free hand. "I'm sorry. Guess I dozed off."

"Let me get that," Buttercup said, sitting behind her sister and fastening the bikini top.

"Where is everyone?" Bubbles asked.

"They just left. We were going to let you nap. Do you just want to head back?"

She yawned. "Prolly should. I could stand to get to bed early."

After they gathered their things and left, Danny sat and thought for a while. It didn't seem right, but he couldn't ignore it. Something about Buttercup's mannerisms seemed off to him. He hadn't overheard anything interesting going on at the Utonium home, but he had to admit, those girls did keep to themselves a lot. Especially those two.

He wasn't sure, but he thought he might be onto something. Maybe it was just tired eyes, a throbbing headache, his own battle with fatigue, and a desire to find an end to this search. But maybe it wasn't.


	14. It Is What It Is

**It Is What It Is**

Buttercup gradually noticed that she was awake. The dawning realization led her to open her eyes and smile. She stretched, her feet pulling her covers off her face in the process.

It had been three weeks since Bubbles and Buttercup first went to the seaside cliff to talk about Mitch. Buttercup wasn't quite sure what to make of everything yet, but she didn't let it bother her. She had probably just blown things out of proportion in her mind. There was no way she could really be in love with her sister, after all. Sure, Bubbles was sweet and more enjoyable than Buttercup had ever imagined. Somewhere over the years she had changed from a whining coward to a confident, proud young woman.

Buttercup didn't doubt her feelings would level out eventually. What would be left behind, she was sure, would be a wonderful friendship. In the meantime, she would just enjoy it. No one had ever made her feel this wonderful and it might be a long time before Buttercup felt this happy with someone else.

They'd talked about nearly everything that could be talked about and even had one or two friendly debates along the way. They'd spent a lot of time just sitting and talking, but they'd had a lot of other fun, too. Some of that was just going to exotic places. Sometimes they just went to talk and enjoy the scenery, but there were usually more interesting activities.

Buttercup even convinced Bubbles to have that game of tag high in the sky on a cloudy day. It ended when Buttercup grabbed her sister from behind and dove them both into the ocean. They'd laughed until they hurt, swimming around and splashing each other, seeing who could hold their breath the longest, and when that got old before either of them gave in, they just floated around to rest up.

Last weekend they spent a night camping on Mount Everest. They figured could stand the cold and altitude just fine, but they'd brought a tent and sleeping bags anyway. But before the night was over they zipped them up as one and shared. Buttercup had been a little nervous, but in the end she couldn't help but enjoy the warmth and softness of Bubbles close by.

Yesterday they had visited Japan on a whim. Bubbles briefly spoke with a pen pal of hers there, in the process proving to the girl's friends that she really was in regular contact with a Powerpuff. Buttercup had felt so out of place and almost vulnerable just casually wandering around Tokyo, but she found she put her trust in Bubbles easily. Bubbles had been bright and confident, speaking to and even joking with the occasional fan or shop owner with her uncanny fluency. She'd explained a number of cultural nuances to Buttercup along the way.

Eventually, though, Buttercup had to get out of bed.

Today their dad had to speak at a conference out of state. Blossom had offered to fly him there in his car so she could sit in and listen. Buttercup figured she and her sister would probably lounge around the house today. When she made her way downstairs she found Bubbles in the middle of just that.

"Good morning," Bubbles chimed.

"Morning," Buttercup replied, continuing on to the kitchen. "So, getting tired of me yet?" That question, and variations of it, had become fairly routine, a sort of in-joke.

"Not yet," Bubbles replied with equal regularity.

"I started one of those comics last night," Buttercup called from the kitchen.

"Manga," Bubbles corrected in an almost sing-song voice.

"It's in English!" Buttercup countered.

"Still manga," Bubbles retorted.

"Whatever!"

Buttercup returned with a bowl of cereal in hand. She hopped the couch and drifted gently down in the middle, beside her sister. As she ate, Buttercup realized Bubbles was watching one of her purchases from yesterday. So she assumed, at least. In any case, it was definitely not in English.

"This got subtitles?"

"Nope. Sorry."

"All right, then. Care to tell me what's going on?"

"Ha," Bubbles half-laughed, half-sighed. "Remember, you asked for it." After a pause, she continued. "Well, there's this corporation slowly draining the souls away from children through their products. Turns out it's run by a group of ancient demons. No surprises there. Now, see that girl? On the left? She's a descendant of a powerful line of priestesses, but everyone thought their descendants were wiped out ages ago. The other girl is actually part demon. You know the devil and angel on the shoulder thing? Well, everyone she kills, she recruits their little devil conscience and now she has a small army of them she uses to kill people."

"Ooookay," Buttercup said. "Weird, but I'm somehow not surprised."

"Oh, it gets worse. The priestess girl, Yukina, and the half-demon girl, Komiko, fell in love and had sex in the first half of the movie."

"Again, somehow not surprised."

"You should have let me finish. They just found out they're actually half-sisters through their mother."

Buttercup choked on her cereal a little and started coughing. Bubbles laughed.

"Are you okay?"

Buttercup set her cereal on the coffee table and nodded, still coughing.

She laughed again. "A little less par for the course?" She leaned over and wrapped her arm around Buttercup, resting her head on her sister's shoulder. "What's wrong? Afraid of a little friendly girl-on-girl incest?"

Buttercup coughed hard one last time and pushed her sister away playfully. Hoarse but smiling, she said, "Get off me, you weirdo."

Just before Buttercup fully recovered (physically or otherwise), she was taken by surprise when Bubbles tackled/wrestled her onto her back, prompting a laughter-accompanied, "Hey!"

Bubbles kept kissing the air as her head slowly descended towards her sister, the intended threat obvious. Buttercup smiled and when Bubbles came closer enough decided to show her up and gave her a brief kiss on the lips. Buttercup dropped her head back onto the couch right after. When Bubbles looked down in mild surprise Buttercup offered a triumphant, "Ha! See, you don't scare me none."

"Well, well, well," Bubbles started, smirking. Apparently she couldn't think of anything to follow that up with, since she said nothing further just then. After a while, she did silently laugh a little, and Buttercup felt her shake as she did so. "If nothing else, I guess you are pretty comfy."

Buttercup smiled wryly, "You gonna kiss me again or are you gonna get off?"

"I dunno," Bubbles teased. "Maybe I like it here. How about that, huh?"

"Heh. I guess it could be weirder. For starters, I always imagined I'd get to be on top."

"Oh, so now you're telling me you've been imagining this for a while, now?"

Buttercup chuckled. Had they done this even a week ago she'd have been blushing and stammering like crazy from the start, but now that she'd decided this was all a passing phase it was just fun. For that matter, it helped to get over it.

"Hell, no. But..." Buttercup stopped, asking herself if she really wanted to say this. In the end she figured, why not? "But for what it's worth," she continued, wrapping her arms around Bubbles's back and giving her a gentle squeeze, "I couldn't settle for someone who can't make me as happy as you do."

"Aw, Buttercup--I'm beginning to worry I may have turned you into a wuss." She gave Buttercup a peck on the cheek. "But that's still sweet of you."

"Well, I guess that answers that question."

"What question?"

"'Are you gonna kiss me again or are you gonna get off?'"

"Ah, _that_ question. Well, before this gets awkward, how about both?" Bubbles floated up and landed beside the couch at Buttercup's feet.

"Good move," Buttercup offered, sitting back up. "What would the neighbors say?"

"Hey, twelve years ago daddy was making little girls in his basement and then his monkey tried to take over the world. And you wonder why the Japanese love us?"

Buttercup couldn't help but laugh. Then she saw Yukina and Komiko on the screen again, trying to resist the urge to share one last kiss before starting their final offensive on the evil corporation. That just made her chuckle more. "You know, Bubbles, you've got a point."


	15. Final Prelude

**Final Prelude**

Buttercup awoke panting as a shudder ran through her body. It wasn't an unpleasant sensation by any means, but in some ways it was still like waking from a nightmare. She could still feel her sister's lips against her own. That and more.

She was a little panicked. Part of her continually desired something the rest of her didn't. That loss of control and judgment made the otherwise pleasant dreams nightmarish to her. Worse, she didn't exactly live a normal life to begin with. Who was to say that one of their enemies wasn't spying on her dreams? That would be beyond embarrassing.

Then, who was to say someone wasn't controlling her dreams? Yeah, she could imagine Him having a hand in this. How else could she have such...desires?

"Who am I kidding?" she asked herself. Even Him wasn't good enough to pull this off. The more time she'd spent with her sister the more she came to realize how much she wanted to be with her. She hadn't just fallen in love, she was drowning in it. Less than a month ago she'd been sure those feelings would fade, so she just let them come. When they only got stronger, if anything, she'd fought and fought and fought, still never snuffing them out.

Everything about Bubbles was so wonderful and beautiful, from her body to her very core. Buttercup knew it could never happen, but despite all her effort she couldn't stop feeling the way she did. Part of her still believed that if she just talked to someone about it things would get better. But who was there to talk to? Bubbles was the only one Buttercup felt close enough to, but she was already struggling with what to say, if anything. How much and in what way.

It was starting to keep her up nights. Sometimes she'd even settle on something that seemed so solid and unshakable she slept easy, sure that the next day she'd resolve everything. Until she woke up, that is.

If she wanted a third party to talk her through and out of it, it pretty much came to her dad or Blossom. Of them, Blossom was more likely to make her own stand and stick with it and treat Buttercup like a problem to be solved. Her father, at least, would listen, smile, cry with her, and surely he would say something that would make everything right again.

What could he say, though? Nothing Buttercup herself hadn't already thought of.

She'd even tried to put a little more distance between herself and her sister. No more lounging around snuggled up or holding hands while they talked. Certainly no more sharing a sleeping bag or piling up on the couch. Their hugs were rarer and briefer, Bubbles apparently noticed and had toned down the friendly kisses on the cheek, and by this point Buttercup felt she'd just about removed the physical from it.

Which made that dream bother her all the more.

* * *

Bubbles stretched and mewed. The sky was still a ruddy orange. She kicked her sheets aside and walked over to the window. Even she wasn't always awake this early and she just felt like watching the sunrise.

She threw on a blue bathrobe and flew out one of her open windows, coming to stand atop one of the tallest skyscrapers in Townsville. Two years ago she'd done the same thing and some lucky photographer in the building behind her had stood on a balcony and snapped rolls of shots. He picked a few of the best and before long the image of her silhouette against the brightening morning sky was known throughout most of Townsville. Today it was still available on postcard and poster. It was even featured in the city's brochure.

Bubbles smiled at the thought of the three or so webcams she knew were trained on this spot. So many people looked up to her and her sisters. She came out here for her own pleasure, but she felt happy that someone else might share that in some way.

She had to admit she was bothered a little, though. People seemed to almost worship them from a distance, but most of those that actually came near them were almost spiteful. She tried to write it off as typical high school and teenage behavior. Sometimes she thought they were disappointed when the girls became more real to them. It was easy to idolize something you only saw on T.V. and in pictures.

Bubbles knew she and her sisters were only human. They'd never really been perfect. They'd each stolen something at some point in their lives. They had lied more than once. Even though they gave so much time and took so many risks for sake of others, they had their selfish moments. How disappointed would some of those other people become if they realized they were just three otherwise ordinary kids with a strong sense of responsibility who happened to come into this world with tremendous powers?

Those thoughts passed quickly, though. The sun waited for no one.

* * *

Blossom stretched yet again and checked her alarm. She'd awoken in the middle of the night and later had trouble returning to sleep. It was usually like that. If she woke up more than halfway through the night it was hard to keep her mind from working through something or another.

It was about the time she normally got up. True to form, she was only now feeling close to sleep again. Unfortunately, she had plans today.

She was dressed and walking into the professor's lab within minutes. Breakfast would wait.

"Morning, dad," Blossom greeted as she descended.

"Good morning, sweetie," he answered, peering through a microscope. "Could you do me a quick favor before we get started?"

"Sure," she replied, hopping up to sit on the counter nearby. "What do you need?"

He left the microscope and leaned on the counter. "I just wanted to ask you about your sisters."

"Oh?"

"Yes. You spend more time with them than I do, between patrols, crime fighting, and your other superheroics. I was just wondering if you'd...noticed anything unusual."

Blossom scrunched her eyebrows in hard thought. "I'm not sure... Like what?"

"Well, I suppose I could have been a little more direct. You've noticed they're spending a lot of together, right?"

Blossom cocked an eyebrow. "Yeah."

"What do you think about that?" he asked. It was an intentionally vague question. Blossom knew that meant he wanted her full, detailed opinion.

"Well, I think it started right after we came back from overseas. Bubbles told me she got Buttercup to talk through the whole Mitch thing, which I was glad to hear. I suppose they've become confidantes."

Blossom paused to gather her thoughts. "I admit I've thought their outings are a little unusual for both of them, together or apart. I didn't think about it much, though. If I didn't have anything better to do, I think it'd be fun to do things like visit a foreign country on a whim or camp on the peak of Mount Everest, too. We usually end up using our powers for work. I figured they're having a good time playing with them."

"And how about you, Blossom? Have you ever thought of joining them? Or have they ever offered?"

"Well, I feel a little left out sometimes, but it doesn't bother me that much. They haven't asked me, but I don't think they feel like they need to. They probably figure if I wanted to come along I'd just ask."

"I thought as much. Thank you, Blossom."

He left the counter, heading for a side chamber. He'd be directing Blossom from the safety of a nearby room while she superheated a mineral with her powers in a room designed to handle such activity.

"Professor?" she asked.

He stopped at the doorway and turned. "Yes, honey?"

"Why did you ask about Bubbles and Buttercup? Was something bothering you?"

"Oh, nothing like that, I don't think. I've just never really seen you girls play favorites with each other before. Well...that's not the phrase I'm looking for, but you understand."

Blossom smiled, "Oh, dad, they're not trying to be mean to me or anything if that's what you're worried about."

He smiled back, "I know, sweetie. Thanks for that." Not that that's what he was worried about, but he still felt better.


	16. Surrender

**Surrender**

Eighteen. As of yesterday, they were eighteen. It hadn't been any big event. Not at home, anyway. People scattered around the city strung up banners, balloons, and streamers. The city was hardly covered, but from up in the air the girls could see these small sites of well-wishers dotting the city here and there.

Well, there'd been that and another attack from Mojo. Nothing too exciting this time, either. By the day's end they'd just settled in for a little cake. Not bad for a Sunday.

Over a decade of serving, protecting, saving, and risking their lives and only now were they considered legally mature. They'd saved the lives of two U.S. Presidents (one of them twice) but only now had the privilege of voting for one.

It had also left Buttercup thinking again about something that had come up over the summer. She'd used the family computer in the middle of the night to do some research. By the end she was feeling just a little better. Technically, she figured, she and her sisters weren't, legally speaking, sisters. They didn't have a common parent--even their father was more an adoptive father. Despite what some disgusting classmates had said in middle school, his genetic material hadn't entered into the equation at any point.

Buttercup didn't think there was much legally against she and Bubbles having a relationship, especially since they couldn't have children.

But that just proved the law had nothing to do with this. Not being wrong didn't make it right. Not being illegal didn't mean society or Bubbles herself wouldn't react badly.

But now she was eighteen. She was an adult. That meant she was mature, right? She had a right to make her own decisions, now, even if other people thought they were wrong.

And if she still thought it was wrong?

That didn't matter any more. She'd given up. Gone for broke. She was tired of wondering, tired of waiting, tired of crying and not sleeping, tired of holding back. She didn't even try to think of how, but she knew she was going to tell Bubbles. Tell her how she felt but that she could control herself and just enjoy their friendship. She'd kept herself under pretty tight control for these last few months; that was proof enough. Most of her problems had come from wondering and struggling with keeping that secret.

"Buttercup, are you sure everything's all right?" Bubbles asked as the bell sounded. Lunch had already ended. That bell signaled the start of class. Mike had left early to do some last-minute homework. Buttercup had convinced Bubbles to wait while everyone else filed off to class.

Buttercup smiled at her sister. "Yeah, I sure. Don't get your pigtails in a twist over it."

Bubbles put on a Blossom-esque folded arms posture. "Well, now we're late, I hope you realize. We should get going before we get any later." A smile slipped through that demeaning look as she offered a hand to her sister. Buttercup took it and let her sister pull her up.

_To the hallway. You can wait until the hallway, but that's it!_ Buttercup thought.

Her sister on her feet, Bubbles twirled and jogged towards the school. She was wearing her blue summer dress again and the skirt billowed out as she took off.

Buttercup caught up easily, putting her hand on her sister's shoulder just as they neared the doors. _This is better. Private. No windows. No see-through doors._

"Hey, Bubbles, hold on a sec."

Bubbles took a deep breath and sighed before she turned around. At least she still managed a smile. "Buttercup, are you really, really sure that everything's okay?" Seeing Buttercup's troubled expression, she grew concerned. "Buttercup?" She reached down and gently grasped each of Buttercup's hands in her own, shifting a step closer. "Whatever it is, please just tell me. You can trust me."

Buttercup smirked, though it was shaky at best. "Yeah, I know. Trust me, I know..." Buttercup cleared her throat. "There's something I've gotta ask... I'm just not sure how, I guess." She took a deep breath to steady herself. "Bubbles, I want you to... I need to know... I mean, it'll probably a bit of a shock at first, but--"

Bubbles interrupted, "It's okay. We're sisters, right? I'm always here for you."

Buttercup smiled and nodded, blinking a few times to clear her eyes. She opened her mouth to speak several times to no effect. After a few seconds, she realized she just couldn't say it. But she wasn't going to let this slide. Words had failed, but there was still one course open.

Buttercup surprised herself as much as her sister when she stepped forward, freeing one hand to rest on the back of Bubbles's head. She closed her eyes and for several seconds kissed the stunned girl in blue.

Bubbles had gone stiff, and Buttercup felt no reaction, no movement. _So much for controlling my actions,_ she thought.

She pulled her head back a little and looked at her sister's shocked, almost vacant expression. Buttercup smiled uneasily and took a step back, letting go of her sister's now-limp hand. Bubbles's brought her other hand to her lips as if seeking to confirm what had just happened.

"Well...what do you think?" Buttercup asked. _No, no, stupid! That's not what you were going to say!_

Bubbles's eyes were still wide. Doe-like. Almost fearful, Buttercup felt, especially as Bubbles took a few steps backwards. "Late... We're...running late. I..." She didn't finish whatever half-formed thought had come, however. She turned and ran into the school.

Buttercup took in a shuddering breath and tried hard to put herself at ease. _Well, that's it. It's out. She knows. You made an ass of yourself--big surprise, huh? Just try not to think about it. You took her by surprise. You deserve it... Just let her think about it. Give her some time. You can explain yourself later. You're not what she needs right now._

_Or ever, for that matter._

Buttercup walked slowly to class.

* * *

Danny swallowed hard. He watched the replay from the camera-like device. With its quality zoom and directional microphone, he may as well have been standing right beside them.

"There's something I've gotta ask," Buttercup said, for the third time (in his car, at least). "I'm just not sure how, I guess."

He could run. Skip town. No, that wouldn't work. He could try to bury this then wait for Princess to bury him. Probably not literally. Probably. Maybe.

"Dear God," he moaned.

His hand shook as he flipped open the lid of his new laptop. In all, he'd spent over a million on this assignment. He didn't want any of it back.

He knew what they'd agreed on, but he had to do this now or he'd never be able to hand it over. So, despite the no-communication degree, he prepared to send a message. Given what this was, Princess would probably let the direct contact slide. He'd send it and then leave this car. He'd hail a cab. Buy something new with cash. "Danny Rye, Private I." was getting the hell out of this city today.

He hesitated briefly before he clicked Send. "Happy birthday, girls," he said, fighting back nausea.

* * *

Princess frowned when she saw the sender. She'd see if he felt like breaking their agreement again after she cut his pay in half. No, to a third!

As Danny had expected, Princess soon had other things to think about.

"Excuse me," she said, interrupting the teacher and leaving the classroom, laptop under arm.

From a bathroom stall, she watched the video twice before flipping open her cell phone as she watched it a third time. "Fionna, pick me up. I have something important to do."


	17. Holding Back

**Holding Back**

After school, Mike was wondering what was up. The girls didn't meet him at his car. The only class any of them shared was his morning class with Bubbles, so he hadn't seen them since lunch. He waited ten minutes just in case, then figured they'd been called out to help with some disaster or another.

He was surprised when he saw Bubbles sitting on his doorstep as he pulled into the driveway. His parents had taken his dad's car to go to his aunt's wedding out of state.

He smiled when he left the car, but when he came closer to Bubbles he grew worried. She was wringing her hands and, while apparently happy to see him, seemed troubled about something.

She was on her feet and talking before Mike could say anything. "Hey, Mike. Can I come inside? I need to talk to you, please."

"Sure, sure," Mike said, hurrying to produce the house key. Bubbles slipped inside immediately. Glancing around first, he followed her. By then she'd already taken a seat at the kitchen/dining room table. Mike dragged one of the chairs closer and joined her.

"Bubbles, are you all right? I've never seen you like this." Realizing he hadn't seen Buttercup yet, he asked, "Are you and your sisters all right?"

"Well, it is about Buttercup," Bubbles said, in a rush. "Something happened after lunch and I've been thinking about it all day, but it's still so weird to me. I just can't think straight yet."

When she didn't continue, Mike prompted, "What's up with Buttercup?"

Bubbles laughed. To Mike, who knew her laugh well, this tittering was unsettling. "Well, she held me up after lunch to talk about something. She almost didn't, then it was like she didn't know what to say, and then... Mike, she kissed me."

"Kissed you? You mean...a for-real kiss?"

"Yeah. Right on the lips. I just... I don't know. I just kind of left her there. I don't know what to do, Mike. I'm still just so confused. It's a lot to take in, you know?"

Mike felt a little out of his league. He wasn't sure what he thought about it, either. He'd need more time to figure that out. It looked like Bubbles did, too.

"How about this: why don't you stay here tonight? Just...take your time with it, all right?"

She acknowledged his comment, but still seemed distracted. "Yeah... Yeah, that's good. I shouldn't have just left her there like that. I don't want to do that to her again. You're right, I should just try and sort this out first."

Mike smiled and put his hands over hers to stop her fidgeting. "Don't worry about it. It'll all be just fine. I'll be right in my room if you need me." Mike stood up, feeling that Bubbles probably had to work through this some on her own before she could turn to someone else. "Now is there anything I can get you? I was going to make coffee."

"Does your mom have any iced tea?"

Mike smiled. "Yeah. She made some green tea before she left."

"Thanks, Mike," she said, drifting off to some place inside herself.

He poured her a glass before he started the coffee maker. He glanced at her before leaving. She was staring at the tablecloth.

"Mike?" she asked before he was gone. "Did you see this coming?"

"No, not really. Did you?"

"No." Quietly, she added, "But maybe I should have." After a heavy silence she said again, "Thanks, Mike."

* * *

"Still no answer there," Blossom said as she hung up the phone. It was past nine o'clock and they hadn't seen or heard from Bubbles.

"Buttercup, are you sure you can't think of anyplace else she might be?" Professor asked. Blossom had already called a classmate, who confirmed that Bubbles was at school even until the end of her last class. Bubbles had seemed preoccupied, though.

"Not this late, I don't. Unless she's at Uncle Ben's farm, but..."

"Well, she's not at Mike's," Blossom said, half-matter-of-factly and half-accusingly. "She's gone missing without so much as a phone call. We're never out this late without at least telling someone. I say we sweep the city."

Buttercup squirmed a little in her chair. "I don't think she's in trouble."

Blossom frowned. "So you claim you have no idea what's going on and somehow it doesn't bother you? Spill it, Buttercup--you know something, don't you?"

Buttercup said nothing.

Blossom continued, "Look here, Buttercup, if you don't say something we have no choice but to assume the worst and go looking for her."

The phone rang. Blossom picked it up without hesitation. "Utonium residence, Blossom speaking."

Buttercup focused her hearing on the phone.

"Hey, Blossom, this is Mike. I just got your calls."

"Hi, Mike. Have you seen Bubbles today?"

"Yeah, we touched base after school. I don't know where she is, now. She just needs some time to deal with something. I'm not worried about her. My opinion still counts for something, right?"

"I guess so," Blossom agreed for sake of avoiding argument. "So you have no idea where she's at?"

"Nope. As far as I know she plans to be back to school in the morning, though."

"Well if you do hear from her again before we do--"

"Yeah, yeah," Mike interrupted. "Later." The phone clicked.

Blossom paused a moment before putting the phone down, probably trying to hide the fact she'd been hung up on. "That was Mike. It sounds like Bubbles is going through something." Blossom glared at Buttercup. "Sounds like he's not worried about her, either."

"Well, that'll have to do for tonight," Professor said. "If she doesn't want us to find her tonight then I don't doubt she'll succeed. And, Blossom, you let me take care of your sister, all right?"

"Which one?" she asked. Buttercup glared back at her.

"Both of them. Now why don't you get ready for bed. If you don't see your sister in the morning, give me a call right away."

Buttercup felt cold and small once Blossom left her alone with their dad. For over a minute she just stared at the tablecloth, afraid to look up. She tensed when he finally put his hand on her shoulder.

"Good night, sweetie," was all he said before heading upstairs to his room. A good ten minutes later, Buttercup ambled up to hers.


	18. Exposure

**Exposure**

Buttercup had been the victim of an early wakeup call by Blossom, who felt they should get an early start to maximize their chances of seeing Bubbles when she showed. Buttercup kept her grumbling to herself, accepting yet another price paid for her actions.

There were a lot of other students gathered outside already. Some of the school buses carried more than one load of kids, so every day there were students left milling around until the doors were opened.

After a quick sweep failed to turn up their sister, they met up on the roof.

"I guess we'll just keep watch for her," Blossom said. "We've still got another five minutes until opening bell. Fifteen until class starts."

Buttercup nodded with a mix of sullenness and her usual tiredness. They parted to man different corners of the roof.

While she scanned the skies and the parking lot entrances, Buttercup was soon distracted by a cry from below.

"Hey, Buttercup! Get your moldy green butt down here!"

It was Princess Morbucks. Buttercup was reluctant to leave her post, but if Princess actually _wanted_ to talk to her, something was up. She flew near her, hovering a foot off the ground so she could glare down at her. Most of the nearby students spared little more than a glance at the scene.

"What do you want? I'm busy," Buttercup opened, glancing at a folder Princess carried under her arm.

Princess smiled. "Well, I'm thinking of doing some photography for the school paper. I thought I'd ask your opinion on my first attempt."

Buttercup deepened her scowl. "What the hell are you trying to pull, Princess?"

Princess smiled and pulled out the folder. Buttercup felt a cold flush through her body when she opened it. Tucked into one of the pockets was a large, glossy print of Buttercup and Bubbles kissing yesterday. It was from an angle, showing more of Bubbles and her shocked expression.

Buttercup landed and snatched the folder from Princess's grasp, bending it in the process. She closed it and held it tightly against her, looking around to see if anyone had noticed the opened folder.

"It's good, huh?" Princess asked. "Front page material, don't you think? You know, I think I might skip straight to the _Times_ instead."

Buttercup glared at her, then tossed the folder on the ground and burned it with her heat vision. She stepped over the small flames and grabbed a fistful of Princess's blouse, lifting her off the ground with one hand.

"Where do you get off pulling a stunt like that!"

"Well, I guess we all know where you get off, huh?" Princess was still smirking, although she was using both hands on Buttercup's arm to hold herself up a little more comfortably. People around them were eying the situation and backing off. Princess continued quietly, her voice a little strained. "And they thought I was sick. Not just another girl, but your own sister?"

Buttercup snarled. "If you do _anything_ to hurt my sister, I'll make you pay. If you want to destroy my reputation, fine. Just be ready to find out what I'm capable of when I have no public image to maintain." Buttercup had a few thoughts then, one of which was that Princess might be bugged. Choosing her words carefully, she concluded, "Besides, they'll figure out that thing's faked. Who would believe you over us?"

Buttercup heard the combined commotion of the principal and Blossom as they approached her. She also heard a helicopter overhead but didn't pay much attention. She was used to news choppers showing up when she or her sisters did even the stupidest little things. Usually not this quick, but it was still early and her mind was on other matters. She dropped Princess, who fell to her knees before standing back up.

"Don't you dare, Princess," Buttercup warned one last time.

"Too late," she said, grinning.

Buttercup heard the volume of the crowd behind her pick up. They'd gone almost silent at the confrontation, but now there were gasps, dozens of conversations, a few woos, and more than a little laughter. These were accompanied by the sounds of flapping papers.

Buttercup turned around and her jaw dropped. The chopper was dropping tens of thousands of papers with that picture on it.

"No!" Buttercup screamed, taking off. At high speed, she tried to sweep them up in a great whirlwind and burn them. This was mostly successful, though it spread a lot of ash and did little for the ones that had already fallen into student hands or onto the ground.

"Buttercup!" Blossom called. She appeared in front of her sister and grabbed her arms to stop her. In one of her hands was one of those pictures. "What is going on here?"

Buttercup looked around to figure out exactly that. It seemed that half the grounds was filled with students looking at her in some mix of shock and disbelief or outright disgust. Others mocked her, more than a few kissing the picture or some invisible party. She saw some enterprising souls had gathered excess papers from the ground and had accepted the task of running copies to the areas that had been denied their falling pictures.

Buttercup freed herself from Blossom's grip, flying away in a haze of tears. Blossom tried to follow, but lost her sister as she darted through the streets and around the skyscrapers of the inner city.

Deciding it was best to let her be, and worrying more about Bubbles again, she returned to the school. High above the commotion below, she saw Mike's convertible a few blocks away, heading towards the school. Bubbles was in it, still wearing yesterday's clothes. Blossom flew over to them, putting her hand on Mike's door and floating horizontally alongside the car.

"Pull over, Mike."

"Woah, chill out!" Mike said, "She just wanted--"

"No, Mike, I mean it. The school yard is a madhouse right now."

"What's that?" Bubbles asked, noticing the paper in her sister's fist. Blossom ignored her for the moment.

Mike pulled into a gas station and parked off to the side. Blossom let go of the car as he turned and landed beside the passenger door when it stopped. Bubbles got out immediately. "What's wrong? And where's Buttercup?"

Blossom stretched the paper smooth against her stomach and turned it around. Bubbles gasped and reached for it. Blossom let her have it. Bubbles held it with one hand, her other over her mouth. Mike walked around to stand behind her, putting her arm around her shoulder.

She looked up and removed her hand from her mouth, "Blossom, where did you get this?"

"Princess dropped a load of them from a helicopter. Buttercup made a huge mess burning up most of them, but they're all over the school grounds anyway. Bubbles, just what is going on here?"

She ignored her sister's question. She became very serious. "Blossom, where is Buttercup? Is she okay?"

Blossom frowned a little. "She took off. I don't know where to."

"We've got to find her," Bubbles said, turning to show Mike her concern as well.

"Let me worry about that," he said. "I've got a hunch. Blossom, could you just keep Bubbles away from the other kids?"

She narrowed her eyes slightly. Her opinion of Mike had never been that high, but she wasn't about to argue with him. If Buttercup didn't want to be found, she wouldn't be. It was that simple. If Mike's hunch was good, so much the better. She'd just track him down later--after she had a talk with Bubbles.

Blossom nodded.

"Great. Thanks, Bloss." Mike ran around and hopped into his car, starting it up again.

Bubbles called out as he backed up. "Mike! If you find her, send her to your place for me, okay!"

He didn't show it, but there was no doubt he heard her.

"Oh no you--" Blossom started.

"It's okay," Bubbles said soothingly, squeezing her sister's arm tightly just below the shoulder. "Everything's going to be just fine."

Blossom pulled the paper from her sister's hand and held it up again. "Bubbles," she started.

Again she was interrupted. "Don't worry about that right now," Bubbles said, pushing her sister's arm down. "When Buttercup comes back, I want to be the first one to talk to her. If she goes home first, will you please send her over to me right away?"

Blossom paused for a moment, then smiled weakly and nodded. She hugged her sister and kissed the hair on her temple. "All right, Bubbles. We'll do this your way. You head on to Mike's, then. I'm heading home to talk to dad."


	19. Zero Hour

**Zero Hour**

"Oh, my," Professor said, gazing at the crumpled though clear image on the table.

"After that, Buttercup took off and I lost her. I found Bubbles riding to school with Mike and stopped them before they could get there. Mike thinks he has some idea of where Buttercup is. Bubbles is waiting at Mike's house. I promised that if Buttercup showed up here before Mike caught up to her that we'd send her out that way."

"Oh, my," Professor repeated, having not looked up from the picture. "How is Bubbles taking this?"

"She's... She's not that upset, actually," Blossom said, still surprised by the fact. "She's a lot more worried about Buttercup, that's for sure. Maybe she can afford to not worry about how people will react. Buttercup is one thing, but you see her expression there. Not many people can accuse Bubbles of anything based on that."

"I see."

"Dad, when you asked me about them spending time together... You weren't already thinking..."

"I'm not sure what I was thinking. I was on the family computer looking for Dr. Whitley's paper on hyper-thermal dynamics you'd told me about. I was looking through the browsing history for it and I came across some searches. I can't say I remember all the specifics, but things like 'sibling marriage' come to mind. Terms related to siblings by adoption and matters of parentage, or your girls' lack thereof."

"Oh. Wow," Blossom uttered, taking a chair across from her father. "So you think all this time..." She trailed off.

"I didn't know who was interested in those topics or why, but I do suspect that Buttercup may have been dealing with this for some time now, yes."

"Do you think it's a good idea to send her to Bubbles, then?"

"I don't know, honey. Do you think it would be a bad idea?"

"Not really, I guess. I figure this is why Bubbles decided to spend some time away from home yesterday, though. She sounds like she's ready to deal with it now. She did tell me that everything was going to be all right and not to worry."

"Maybe that's going to have to be good enough. Judging from this picture, I'd agree that Bubbles wasn't harboring any romantic feelings towards Buttercup."

"But Buttercup... I mean, how--why?"

"It's really hard to say, Blossom. We can only guess without hearing their side of this. Maybe we should wait for that. For right now," he nodded to the picture, "it sounds like we have another problem to worry about."

* * *

Mike really hoped he was right about this. He'd already been on the road for hours. Not only did he expect a long drive, but he'd lost more than a little time on a wrong turn, too. A few hours back he realized it was quite possible he was on the right track but that by the time he got there Buttercup would be long gone. He might have done just as well to tell Bubbles to go look for her here. Of course, if Buttercup were still there after all this time, she'd probably needed the time to think anyway. For that matter, he still thought Bubbles could use some time, too.

Or maybe he was just trying to make himself feel better about trying to be the hero for a change and quite probably screwing it up.

He did reach it eventually. He and Buttercup had talked about some of the "special places" she and her sisters visited to get away from the world. He pulled off the road when he saw a distant figure on the cliff's edge. Even after the drive, it seemed he had a few minutes of walking ahead of him.

Mike didn't blame her. There had been times he might have wished he could fly hundreds of miles away from his problems. But in the end, he'd always been happy to have pushed through his hard times.

She didn't react to his approach, although he'd made sure she would hear his footsteps.

"I don't know how you found me, but I'm not in the mood."

"I know," Mike said. Buttercup did turn, now.

"Mike?"

"Yup," he said, sitting a few feet away. He pulled out a cigarette and lit it.

"What the hell are you doing way out here?"

"Checking up on you. Everyone's worried about you, you know."

"Ha! Understatement of the friggin' century. I'll bet they're worrying about me all the way to CNN by now."

"I mean your family. Just forget about everyone else. What do they know, anyway?"

"They know I'm a perverted freak of nature. Hell, some of them already thought I was a freak of nature. Now they think I'm a sick, disgusting weirdo, too."

"So what? People don't like anything that fails to fit into one of the neat little boxes they've so painstakingly crafted. And you're right, you've never been easy to categorize like that. But you're anything but a freak or a sick pervert."

"Great. One on my side, three hundred million against me. I saw the looks in their faces, Mike. Not only am I a horrible freak who wants her own sister, but I hurt Bubbles!"

"Hurt her?" Mike started. Before he could continue, Buttercup did.

"Damn right! I freaked her out. I made her afraid." Buttercup's voice became a little shaky. "Made her run away... Now that damn picture's all over the place! She's got that to deal with, thanks to me."

"Hey, stop it! You didn't see Bubbles this morning. When we found out what had happened, all your sister cared about was you! She wondered where you were, if you were okay--she saw the picture and even then I swear the first thing out of her mouth was _her_ concern for _you_. I know you must have been worried about her last night. Well, right now she's worried about you. She's waiting at my house for you as we speak."

"But... But how can I face her now?"

"Forget that--how can you avoid it? Never go home again?"

Despite herself, Buttercup chuckled. "Good point."

After a little silence, Buttercup asked, "So you don't think it's wrong? What I feel?"

"It's not my place to say. I don't think I do, but it's still not my decision or anyone else's. No one but you and your sister understand this."

"But we're supposed to always do the right thing. People look up to us."

"Most of those people would be dead or worse if not for you. I'm sure most of them are dying to bring you girls down to their level. But you're not, and you never will be. You're better than that, and they hate it. No matter what they've said or done to you over the years, you've always helped them, and deep inside some of them hate you even more because of it."

Buttercup took a minute to soak that in. Mike finished his cigarette and flicked the butt over the cliff side.

She watched it disappear from view. "It must have taken you hours to get here."

"Don't sweat it. Besides, on a wrong turn a while back I found this awesome decrepit farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. I'll have to head back this way sometime and paint a landscape."

"Heh. Sometimes the wrong turns end up better than the right ones."

"I guess you'd be the expert on that."

After a while, Buttercup asked, "So, I've got to ask... Did you come here for her sake or for mine?"

Mike just smiled.

Buttercup smiled, too. It didn't matter anyway. "So do you think she could ever love me the way I love her?"

"I don't know. She hasn't told me anything and I haven't asked. Whatever it is, though, she's ready to talk to you about it."

"That's a good sign, I guess."

"You don't sound like you believe that."

"Mike, what I wanted to tell her yesterday was that I loved her but that I wouldn't let it get between us. That I couldn't make myself stop loving her that way, but at the same time she didn't have to worry about me. Instead I totally freak her out and make that a lie before I even say it."

"Look, Buttercup, I don't know how many ways I can say this, but I don't have the answers."

"I could have done a better job is all I'm saying."

"Look, Buttercup, you can't change who you are--who you love. Trust me, I've tried. It doesn't matter what you said, or how you said it, or what you did."

Buttercup looked at him with amazement. "You know, Mike... You're right. And I just realized something. It was never my place to say the right thing or try to make her understand, was it? Either she loves me or not. And if she still at least loves me as her sister, maybe it'll be all right." She stood up. "Besides, the hard part's over, right?"

Mike stood up as well, brushing off his pants. "Only one way to find out."

Buttercup hesitated for a moment, then just did it. She surprised Mike with a hearty hug. "Thanks again, Mike," she said after she stepped back. "I'd better get moving. Do you want me to fly you back in your car?"

Mike shrugged. "Nah. It's not like I'm going to school today. Or have anything better to do. And, unlike you, I don't get to see so much of the world around us. Besides, this way you two should have plenty of time to sort things out by yourselves."

Buttercup silently mouthed a final "thank you" and sped off.


	20. Never Hold Back

**Never Hold Back**

Buttercup landed at Mike's doorstep. A big part of her still wanted to run, but she wasn't going to let that happen. Bubbles deserved better. Buttercup deserved worse. At least in her mind.

For much the same reason, she resisted the temptation to look through the walls and see if Bubbles was still there, or what she was doing, or what kind of mood she was in. She wanted to prepare herself, but she wanted to pay her penance just as much.

She took a deep, shuddering breath before ringing the bell. She tried to steel herself, knowing that if Bubbles were there she'd probably look through the door before opening it. No violation of privacy in that, after all.

There was a pause before she heard footsteps. They were brisk and purposeful, but not excited or rushed. Bubbles opened the door and revealed her smiling countenance.

Buttercup tried to find some trace of pity, condescension, or even condemnation in that smile, but even her guilty imagination failed to embellish it.

"Hey."

"Hey," Buttercup replied awkwardly. She started running her fingers through the back of her hair and struggled to look at her smiling sibling.

"Been back home yet?"

"Um, no. Mike sent me here. Said he'd drive back."

"Do you wanna come in and sit?"

"Um, sure. I guess."

Bubbles nodded and headed for the couch in the other room. She didn't turn back. She knew Buttercup well enough to expect she'd prefer to enter at her own pace and close the door herself. She'd prefer that to being waved in like a patient at a hospital. Or a mental clinic.

Bubbles stopped by the touch, but didn't sit. She did turn around when Buttercup stopped walking. Bubbles lowered her head. Looking at the floor, she glanced up shyly. "So, um... Is there anything you want to say first?"

"Uh... Not really. I mean... You can say whatever it is you're gonna say."

"Are you sure? This must've been a rough--heh, almost exactly 24 hours, now. Anyway, this must've been a rough day for you." This time Bubbles fidgeted, running her fingers once through the hair on her temple.

"No, no. I deserved it. You just go ahead."

"Deserved it?" Bubbles asked, ignoring her sister's request. Intending to get her sister talking, she took a seat on the couch and asked, "What do you mean?"

"Well, I mean, first I completely freaked you out yesterday. You didn't even want to come home after that. Then there was the picture." Arms crossed, Buttercup sat rather reluctantly, staring at the blank television screen and the dark, warped reflection of them barely visible therein.

"I just needed time to think about things, that's all. That's not so strange, is it?"

Buttercup shrugged.

"That's it? There's really nothing else you have to say?"

"I love you," Buttercup spat. Bubbles recognized her sister's typical ploy, masking all her varied feelings behind the one she wasn't afraid to show. "I'm sorry, but I just do. I can't tell you why, but it's not like I wanted it. I fought it. I tried to hide it. I'm really sorry, but it was just too big for me. I wasn't gonna kiss you either, but I did, and I'm sorry. I--" Buttercup stopped short. She didn't know what else she was going to say. Everything else floating through her mind was basically geared towards defending her actions. But she wasn't going to do that.

"I guess that's it," she concluded.

After a long pause, Bubbles slid along the couch to sit next to her sister, sitting sideways to face her. Buttercup didn't turn, but she stiffened when Bubbles put her hand on her shoulder.

"So you really do love me...that way. As more than a sister?"

Buttercup's eyes flooded in an instant. She bit her lower lip and nodded as a tear made a break for her chin.

Bubbles reached out and gently touched her hand to Buttercup's chin, turning her face and then brushing away the tear.

Bubbles smiled. "Then I guess there's only one thing left to do."

Buttercup closed her eyes and forced down a deep breath, steeling herself for what was next.

This time it was she that opened her eyes wide in shock when she felt another pair of lips pressed tenderly against her own.

Bubbles wrapped her arms tenderly around Buttercup's neck and pulled away.

"That's not how I looked when you did that, is it?"

Buttercup blushed and glanced at the empty television. "I guess if you really want to know you can turn on the news."

"Buttercup, it's been the same since we were kids." Bubbles smiled wryly and rested her forehead against Buttercup's, "Why watch the news when you can make it?"


	21. Closure

**Closure**

Mike had done his best to kill time. He went back to the farm to make sure he'd be able to find it again. When he got back in town he sat in for some much needed fast food. He took his time with the soda.

He stopped by to pick up the photographs he'd dropped of to be developed a week ago. He sat in the parking lot and flipped through them.

Three times.

Before he pulled out he bagged up the little bit of miscellaneous trash in his car.

When he filled up his tank, he checked the pressure in his tires and aired them up.

Halfway to home he turned around to buy some frames he'd been meaning to get. He met an old acquaintance there and talked for a while, though the subject of the day never came up. After they'd both checked out and Mike had kept the conversation going, blatantly ignoring his hints that he was ready to take off. After ten minutes he just said, "Look, I've gotta get out of here. I'll catch you later."

Mike walked up the strip of stores and back before he brought his bags to the car.

In all, by the time he was heading home for real he was facing the usual after-school traffic. He left the car running for a few minutes before keying it off.

He was a bit more awkward with the bags and the door than he needed to be. After fumbling with the keys he realized the door was still unlocked.

He set the frames in the walkway and dropped off his trash in the kitchen. He didn't call out, though. After all, this was his house. Or his parents', at least.

It was pretty obvious that, at least downstairs, he was alone.

He walked up the stairs, taking no care to be silent, though with the plush carpet on the stairs and hallway it was hard to make much noise if you tried.

He reached his bedroom door, which was closed. He raised his hand to knock but stopped himself. It was quiet.

He "accidentally" bumped the knob before turning it, and paused before edging the door open. He peeked through the crack, starting at the floor. As usual, he saw clothes there. This time, they weren't all his.

Mike couldn't help but look up. Under the bed covers, their backs him, were two familiar forms.

When he closed the door softly, he couldn't help but smile.

Buttercup turned her head to make sure the room was still empty. Looking at her blissfully unconscious, sleep deprived sister, she couldn't help but smile either.


End file.
